IMMANENT GOD 

BY 

WILLIAM F.ENGLISH, PH.D. 





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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

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Shelf 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



i 



EVOLUTION AND 

THE IMMANENT GOD 



AN ESSAY ON THE NATURAL THEOLOGY 
OF EVOLUTION 



Pastor of the First Congregational Church* East Windsor, 
Conn. 



" Whichever way of creation God may have chosen, in none 
can the dependence of the universe on Him become slacker, in 
none be drawn closer." — Lotze : Microcosmus, Vol. I., p. 374. 





BOSTON: 
ARENA PUBLISHING COMPANY 
Copley Square 
1894 



I S>2 



Copyrighted, 1894, 
By WILLIAM F. ENGLISH. Ph. D. 

All rights reserved. 



A r'cna Press. 



THIS LITTLE VOLUME 
IS INSCRIBED TO MY WIFE, 
WHOSE INTEREST, 
SYMPATHY AND COMPANIONSHIP 
HAVE MADE ITS 
PREPARATION A PLEASURE. 



The Parsonage," East Windsor, Conn., 
September, 1894. 



\ 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER. PAGE 

I. A New Phase of an Old Conflict 1 

II. The Doctrine of Evolution — Origin — Definition — 

Factors — Proofs — Limitations 16 

III. The Christian Doctrine of the Immanent God 34 

IV. Evolution and the Arguments for the Being of 

God 49 

V. Evolution and the Beneficence of God 66 

VI. Evolution and Revelation : the Incarnation 84 

VII. Evolution and the Supernatural — Miracle — Prov- 
idence — Prayer 96 

VIII. Evolution and Immortality Ill 



I 



EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 



CHAPTER i. 



A NEW PHASE OF AN OLD CONFLICT. 



Dr. Bushnell observes, in his work entitled 
" Nature and the Supernatural/' that — "from 
the first moment or birthtime of modern sci- 
ence, if we could fix the moment, it has been 
clear that Christianity must ultimately come 
into a grand issue of life and death with it, or 
with the tendencies embodied in its progress. 
Not that Christianity has any conflict with the 
facts of Science, or they with it. On the con- 
trary, since both it and nature have their com- 
mon root and harmony in God, Christianity 
is the natural foster-mother of Science, and 
Science the certain handmaid of Christianity, 
and both together, when rightly conceived, 



2 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOB. 

must constitute one complete system of knowl- 
edge. But the difficulty is here : that we see 
things only in a partial manner, and that the 
two great modes of thought, or intellectual 
methods, that of Christianity in the supernatural 
development of God's plan, and that of Sci- 
ence in the natural, are so different that a 
collision is inevitable and a struggle necessary 
to the final liquidation of the account between 
them : or, what is the same, necessary to a pro- 
per settlement of the conditions of harmony. 
Thus from the time of Galileo's and Newton's 
discoveries down to the present moment of 
discovery and research in geological science, 
we have seen the Christian teachers stickling 
for the letter of the Christian documents and 
alarmed for their safety, fighting, inch by 
inch, with solemn pertinacity, the plainest, 
most indisputable or even demonstrable facts. 
On the other side, the side of Science, multi- 
tudes, especially of the mere dilettanti, have 
been boasting, almost every month, some dis- 
covery that was to make a fatal breach upon 
revealed religion." 

However we may regard his interpretation 
of them, we believe the author quoted has 



A NEW PHASE OF AN OLD CONFLICT. 3 

stated the facts of the case with substantial 
accuracy, and that he gives a good summary 
of a considerable part of our controversial 
literature in this short paragraph. 1 

Science and Religion, or rather, Science and 
Theology, have, since the time of the German 
Reformation, when for the first time such a 
conflict became possible, been continually ar- 
rayed, the one against the other. 

Indeed, before that time, although their 
activity was by definition restricted to differ- 
ent and separate spheres, Theology having 
to do with the higher sphere — the Kingdom 
of Grace — as distinguished from the lower 
sphere, the Kingdom of Nature — the proper 
domain of Science, they frequently came into 
collision, and Theology often felt constrained 
to invoke the aid of the Church's anathemas 
to hinder the circulation and acceptance 
of teachings of Science which seemed to it 
to imperil the integrity of the current dog- 
matic system. 

Quite probably this opposition and persecu- 
tion on the part of Theology exerted a most 

1 Cf. " New Chapters in the Warfare of Science " — Pop. Sci. 
Mo., 1891. 



4 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

salutary influence upon the development of 
Science ; in the same way as the early perse- 
cutions of the Christian Church contributed 
without doubt to the advancement of the 
cause of truth. 

Men of science were likely to sift their 
theories to the bottom and to convince them- 
selves, at least, of their substantial truth, be- 
fore proclaiming them to a world dominated by 
the priest and the Inquisition. The very op- 
position of intellectual darkness and bigotry 
was calculated to draw out and develop to the 
uttermost any natural heroism of character, 
and to make Science more conscious of the 
responsibility of its moral, as well as intellectual, 
mission — a condition of things in sad contrast 
with the arrogance, dogmatism, and dilettante- 
ism which pervades and characterizes so much 
of modern scientific theory and assertion. 

With the rise of free investigation and 
thought, however, Science was quick to resent 
the former tyranny of Theology, and bitter in 
its hostility to its old oppressor. With the 
discovery of new facts and old errors, with the 
development and general acceptance of an em- 
pirical philosophy, and the growing belief in 



A NEW PHASE OF AN OLD CONFLICT. 5 

the universality of law, Science has often 
seemed to think itself on the eve of over- 
throwing the whole structure of faith, with 
the facts of observation and experiment. 

Taking its stand upon the basis of the ob- 
served facts of the outward world of nature, 
and believing their logic to be irresistible, it 
has given scant courtesy to the facts of spirit- 
ual experience and belief and the testimony of 
the human consciousness respecting an inner 
and spiritual world. It has viewed the many 
attempts of Theology to build upon such facts 
a stable and satisfactory structure with an 
incredulity akin to contempt. 

Theology, thrown on the defensive from the 
first, cumbered with the burden of inherited 
creeds and dogmatic systems, and feeling bound 
to maintain their integrity at all hazards and 
against every foe, has often found itself on 
the side of error, and been obliged, again and 
again, to adjust its theories to the facts, and 
in accordance with the new light furnished it 
by its supposed enemy. 

It has fought this losing battle with great 
pertinacity, and has many times, mistaking 
fidelity to the traditional theology for fidelity 



6 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

to the truths of Revelation, seemed almost on 
the point of losing prestige with thinking men ; 
and yet, in the end, with wise conservatism, 
even if a little late, has accepted the truth, and 
even used it to establish anew and upon a 
more secure foundation its own system. 

Too often both parties in this controversy 
have been narrow in their views of truth, and 
only willing to look upon it from one side, 
and that their own peculiar standpoint ; while 
the one who would effect a reconciliation be- 
tween them has been suspected by both. 

There is, however, a growing belief in the 
necessary unity of the universe. There may 
be two revelations, or even more, — their num- 
ber is largely a matter of definition — but, if 
these are all from one source, as the theist be- 
lieves, they must agree, when rightly under- 
stood and properly expressed. One should 
not be considered as naturally and inevitably 
opposed to the other, or as tending to destroy 
or discredit its teaching; but in each should 
be sought explanation and confirmation of the 
other, and in them both, taken together, one 
harmonious unity of truth. To discover and 
establish this unity and consistency has long 



A NEW PHASE OF AN OLD CONFLICT. 7 

been- the ambition and endeavor of earnest 
minds. 

The old conflict between Theology and 
Science has of late entered upon a new phase, 
and taken a new direction and name. With 
the discovery of Evolution, and its promulga- 
tion as a universal philosophy, having its appli- 
cation and validity in all departments of science 
and truth, the terms of the conflict were 
changed ; and we now find Evolution pitted 
against Theology, the prevailing theory or 
philosophy of Science taking the place of 
Science itself in the old controversy. 

The theory of Evolution, when first advanced, 
received scant courtesy, even from the scien- 
tific world ; but, after running the gauntlet of 
ridicule and adverse criticism, it has gradually 
won its way to acceptance, in one form or 
another, among the great majority of scien- 
tists ; and now furnishes working hypotheses 
for the main branches of science ; and gives 
its own distinctive color to the teaching of our 
chief schools and universities. 

Theology has been slow to accept this new 
doctrine in any form ; indeed, from no other 
quarter has it met with such persistent and 



8 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 



determined opposition, not to say misrepresenta- 
tion. It has appeared to many to be the very 
Anti-Christ of modern scientific thought, de- 
stroying all faith in the teachings of Revela- 
tion, and even imperilling the very belief in the 
existence of God. 

In the early and extreme form, in which it 
was urged by some, and with the extravagant 
claims made for it by many of its advocates, 
we could hardly expect it to receive any other, 
or milder, treatment at the hands of that 
science which it came professedly to supplant 
and destroy. After considerable discussion 
and explanation, however, and in a somewhat 
modified form, with its sphere and limitations 
well defined, it is now beginning to find favor 
and acceptance, even in theological circles. 
The earlier misrepresentation and bitter hostil- 
ity which characterized its first reception by the 
theologian, has, in a great measure, ceased or 
given place to a more judicial frame of mind 
on his part ; and, while the materialistic in- 
terpretations and inferences of some of its 
advocates are opposed as firmly as ever, many 
accept the doctrine, or philosophy, in one form 
or another, defend it, and even find in its 



A NEW PHASE OF AN OLD CONFLICT. 9 

teaching aid for the apprehension and elucida- 
tion of religious truth. 

The doctrine of Evolution may be said to 
have won for itself, at last, a position where it 
can be considered strictly on its own merits ; 
and its value in the statement and elucidation 
of Christian truth can now be estimated. 

Toleration and consideration in theological 
circles is no inconsiderable victory for the 
theory which lately was denounced without dis- 
crimination and stint from so many pulpits, 
periodicals, and seminaries. 

Nor is it a small gain to Christianity itself, 
that the young men who have come to accept 
Evolution, as it is implied, if not directly 
taught, in our colleges and schools, are no 
longer told that they cannot believe in the 
doctrine of Evolution and be at the same time 
Christians. 

Several causes have contributed to bring 
about this great change in the attitude of the 
religious public toward the doctrine of Evolu- 
tion. Of these, perhaps the most potent has 
been a better understanding of the real and 
essential meaning of the principle, and its 
necessary bearing upon spiritual truth ; while 



10 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

the names and influence of those, eminent for 
their piety and scholarship among the churches, 
who have accepted, explained and defended the 
theory, has also done much to weaken, if not 
entirely remove, the prejudice which the 
advocacy of many pronounced materialists and 
atheists had engendered among those who 
valued their Christian faith above aught else, 
and were not willing to tolerate for a moment, 
even for consideration, any theory or phi- 
losophy that threatened its entirety. 

In this connection, the name of Dr. McCosh 
deserves thankful mention, for his early, cour- 
ageous and conservative maintenance of the 
true principles involved. 

His " Bedell Lectures " for 1887 are a model 
of clearness and discrimination in presenting 
the " Religious Aspect of Evolution ; " and his 
own personality and character give additional 
weight to his words. His acceptance of the 
doctrine of Evolution as an established prin- 
ciple is unequivocal. He says, 1 — " That there 
is such a process as Evolution, whatever that 
may be, is now settled among naturalists. 
There is not a scientist under thirty years of 
1 Independent, Oct. 3d, 1889. 



A NEW PHASE OF AN OLD CONFLICT. 11 

age who does not believe in it in some form. 
Our theologians and religious journalists, who 
are ignorant of natural history, speak against 
it less frequently and dogmatically, though 
they still claim a petty victory when evolution- 
ists quarrel about some subordinate points." 

Others also have, in like manner, borne 
testimony to the value of Evolution and the 
groundlessness of the fears entertained on its 
account. 

Dr. Munger maintains 1 that, " Evolution, 
properly considered, not only does not put 
God at a distance, nor obscure his form be- 
hind the order of nature, but draws him 
nearer, and even goes far towards breaking 
down the walls of mystery that shut him out 
from human vision. In other words, in Evolu- 
tion we see a revelation of God, while in pre- 
vious theories of creation we had only an 
assertion of God." 

Dr. Hark affirms, and has written a book 2 
to show, that, " The truth of the Bible and the 
truth of Evolution are one, the only conflict is 
between its several interpreters and expo- 
nents." 

1 " Appeal to Life." 2 " The Unity of the Truth." 



12 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

Indeed some have gone so far in their ac- 
ceptance and appreciation of the doctrine of 
Evolution as to attempt the reconstruction of 
theology upon the basis of its philosophy ; be- 
lieving that essential modifications of the 
existing doctrinal systems, if not a " theologi- 
cal revolution/' lie involved in and are required 
by its teaching and implications. 

Undoubtedly, the new philosophy will 
change to a considerable extent the point 
of view from which all truth is seen. Protest- 
ant theology, however, has never had phi- 
losophy for its source, nor depended upon it 
for its facts; only in their statement and 
elucidation has the aid of philosophy been 
sought, and here surely the influence of 
Evolution will be felt, though the expectations 
of some and fears of many respecting its 
effect upon Dogmatic Theology are likely to 
be disappointed. 

There are, however, many questions, intro- 
ductory to theology proper, which depend 
for their solution quite largely upon phi- 
losophy. It is with these that we may expect 
to find Evolution a more pronounced, direct 
and determining influence. 



A NEW PHASE OF AN OLD CONFLICT. 13 

Materialism and doubt have been quick to 
claim the testimony and support of the doc- 
trine of Evolution for themselves, in their con- 
flict against all belief in the supernatural and 
supersensual, and loud in proclaiming their 
expected victory over Christianity. 

The consensus of scientific opinion seems to 
be that they have been premature in their re- 
joicing and unwarranted in their claims. 

Prof. Fiske, the leading exponent of the 
Evolutionary Philosophy in America, bears 
testimony to the fact that, 1 " One grand result 
of the enormous progress achieved during the 
past forty years in the analysis of both physi- 
cal and psychical phenomena has been the 
final and irretrievable overthrow of the materi- 
alistic hypothesis." 

In a recent article 2 the same author indig- 
nantly rebukes the dogmatism of those scien- 
tists that declare the belief in Evolution to be 
inconsistent with a belief in the existence of a 
personal God, maintaining the perfect har- 
mony of the two beliefs. 

In an earlier production 3 he tells us how the 

1 Cosmic Philosophy. 2 Pop. Sci. Mo., Sept., 1891. 

3 Idea of God. 



14 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

doctrine of Evolution affects his own belief in 
God, — " When from the dawn of life we see 
all things working together toward the evolu- 
tion of the highest spiritual attributes of man, 
we know, however the words may stumble in 
which we try to say it, that God is, in the 
deepest sense, a moral being." 

It would seem, therefore, that the time was 
now ripe for Christian thinkers to appropriate 
for their own uses the new light furnished by 
this promising theory, and to use it, with all 
the prestige it has gained with thinking men, 
in the ever-changing battle which they are 
continually compelled to wage with materi- 
alism and doubt, with regard to those ques- 
tions which meet us on the threshold of all 
belief. 

Let us no longer direct our controversial 
attacks against the doctrine of Evolution, as 
though the weight of its testimony and impli- 
cation were against us ; but let us use Evolu- 
tion itself, or its philosophy, in clearing the 
ground for the acceptance of the Christian 
system, and for the upbuilding of the struct- 
ure of faith upon the one foundation of saints 
and prophets, 



A NEW PHASE OF AN OLD CONFLICT. 15 

Should it be found to serve for this worthy- 
purpose, it would not be the first time in the 
history of thought that the Christian Church 
has received its weapons for overcoming its 
enemies, ready furnished and prepared by its 
old accredited foe. 



16 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION. ORIGIN. DEF- 
INITION. FACTORS. PROOFS. LIMITATIONS. 

1. The early popular idea, that Evolution 
was the invention of Darwin, and signifies the 
descent of man from the monkey, is now fast 
giving place to broader and more satisfactory, 
if less simple, conceptions. 

There is still, however, a tendency to exag- 
gerate the importance and magnify the influ- 
ence of the later expounders of this doctrine, 
at the expense of those who as surely deserve 
recognition for their services in preparing the 
way and laying the foundations for its subse- 
quent acceptance and development. 

Many, even among the most strenuous ad- 
vocates of Evolution, seem desirous of making 
out a complete break in the continuity of the 
development of thought, and insist upon the 



THE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION. 17 

modern origin 1 of this doctrine, oblivious of 
the fact that their own theory demands con- 
tinuity in philosophy as much as in geology. 

Indeed, a consistent and satisfactory history 
of the origin and development of the doctrine 
of Evolution, in its broadest sense, has yet to 
be written ; the current histories of philosophy 
not having this line of investigation in mind. 
The idea of development is by no means a 
modern one. It can be traced back to the 
earlier Greek philosophers, and often had a 
place, more or less prominent, in the systems 
of all periods, though the breadth of the pos- 
sible application of the principle never received 
any adequate recognition. 1 

Indeed, Dr. James Freeman Clarke asserts, 2 
that a belief in the doctrine of Evolution is 
found among most of the primitive races, a 
dim prophecy of what modern science has 
revealed as the actual fact. He finds more or 
less clear traces of it in the Orphic writings, 
the laws of Manu, Aristophanes, Hesiod, Ovid, 
among the Indians of America, in the Eddas 

1 Lectures before the Brooklyn Ethical Association.— 
" The Philosophy of Evolution." 

2 Ten Great Religions. Vol. II. 

2 



18 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

of the Teutonic race, and even in the myths 
of the islands of the Pacific. 

The world of the ancients was small, their 
intellectual horizon limited, the data for com- 
parisons and generalizations in a great measure 
undiscovered, and hence its methods undevel- 
oped. 

The facts of nature, the events of history, 
and the postulates of philosophy were discerned 
with an increasing clearness, but, from a lack 
of perspective, their causes and relations were 
little apprehended or understood, and the dis- 
covery of any universal law of connection and 
development was not to be expected. 

What Professor Fiske 1 observes with regard 
to historical science and investigation may 
perhaps be regarded as practically and sub- 
stantially true in all departments of scien- 
tific research, — " Most of the shortcomings of 
the old method of historical writing resulted 
from the fact that the world was looked at 
from a statical point of view, or as if a picture 
of the world were a series of detached pictures 
of things at rest. The human race and its 
terrestrial habitat were tacitly assumed to have 
^op. Sci. Mo., Sept., 1891. 



THE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION. 19 

been always very much the same as at present. 
One age was treated much like another, and 
when comparisons were made it w r as after a 
manner as different from the modern compar- 
ative method as alchemy was different from 
chemistry. As men's studies had not yet been 
turned in such direction as to enable them to 
appreciate the immensity of the results that are 
wrought by the cumulative action of minute 
causes, they were disposed to attach too much 
importance to the catastrophic and marvel- 
lous." 

It is only the breadth of view and scientific 
method of modern times that have made possi- 
ble a conception of the universe as a connected 
whole, and the development of ideas of connec- 
tion and relation, which have existed in so 
many minds and found expression in so many 
philosophical systems, into one comprehensive 
philosophy or doctrine of Evolution. 

The discoveries of Copernicus and Newton 
in Astronomy did much to enlarge the mental 
horizon of mankind as regards the element of 
space ; and those of the latter demonstrated 
the active potency of the forces known to ter- 
restrial physics among the planets as well. 



20 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

Lyell introduced the new Geology, showing 
that the same physical causes or forces now in 
operation were sufficient, when conceived of as 
acting through long periods of time, to account 
for the successive changes and periods in the 
earth's history, without the necessary intro- 
duction of new agencies or the supposition of 
violent catastrophes. 

Even before these astronomical and geologi- 
cal discoveries, in 1755, the " Nebular Hypoth- 
esis " was promulgated by Immanuel Kant, 
an evolutionary theory, which, with subsequent 
modifications and emendations, remains essen- 
tially the working hypothesis of to-day. 

In the application of the comparative method 
to other branches of science, as Biology and 
Philology, results were also obtained that did 
much to stimulate the growing, though vague, 
conception of an Evolution where each phase 
of nature is produced from an antecedent phase 
through the action of causes now in opera- 
tion. 

Mr. Darwin applied himself to the task of 
learning the force or cause that could account 
for the specific changes and variations in plant 
and animal life, and, as a result of his pro- 



THE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION. 21 

tracted and painstaking researches, discovered 
the now famous law of " Natural Selection/' or 
" The Survival of the Fittest." 

Mr. Wallace also solved the same problem 
in the same way, entirely independent of Mr. 
Darwin, and shares with him the honor of the 
discovery. 

Mr. Darwin's connection with Evolution 
was limited to this one line of investigation 
and discovery ; and it is hard to see how he 
can be properly called the discoverer of the 
doctrine of Evolution, which was clearly the 
product of many minds, the induction from the 
results and facts furnished by many independ- 
ent investigators, in many different lines of 
research. 

Herbert Spencer, following out perhaps the 
investigations of Von Baer and the suggestions 
of the German philosophers, was the first to 
discover a universal formula of Evolution, and 
this he did at first quite independently of Mr. 
Darwin, though in perfect harmony with the 
results he had obtained, and influenced, no 
doubt, by the trend of the age. 

The doctrine of Evolution is now the herit- 
age of the scientific world, and the working 



2'2 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 



hypothesis of the many seekers after truth in 
its various fields. 

It has passed in safety and triumph what 
may be called the preliminary stage of trial 
and exposition, and, in one form or another, 
commands general acceptance. 

It has now entered upon the more important 
period of application and verification through- 
out the whole realm of truth, and among all 
the phenomena of the outward world, and the 
world of mind as well. This period seems 
likely to be a protracted one, for the true 
nature of Evolution and its exact limits are by 
no means settled, as yet, and its whole process 
is still a mystery, which challenges the best 
thought and most thorough and minute in- 
vestigations of this and, in all probability, of 
many generations to come ; with good pros- 
pect of large and substantial gains for true 
scientific knowledge. 

2. Of the various definitions which have been 
given of Evolution, perhaps the most widely- 
known is that of Herbert Spencer, who defines 
it in general terms, as " an integration of matter 
and concomitant dissipation of motion : during 
which the matter passes from an indefinite, 



• 



THE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION. 



23 



incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent 
heterogeneity, and during which the retained 
motion undergoes a parallel transformation." 

Prof. Le Conte speaks of it, as a " continuous 
progressive change, according to certain laws, 
by means of resident forces." 

In other words, it is an organized, universal 
law of causation, by which one thing is devel- 
oped, or drawn out, of another, the complex 
from the simple, and the more complex from 
the less complex. 

3. The forces, or factors, entering into this 
process, and acting to produce these changes, 
have not as yet been fully determined. On 
this point there is still considerable difference 
of opinion among the advocates of Evolution. 

There are four factors 1 which have obtained 
general recognition : — 

1. Influence of Environment, which, as it 
changes, affects function, and function struct- 
ure ; and the changes thus produced are in- 
herited and integrated throughout successive 
generations. 

2. The increased Use or Disuse of Organs, 
producing changes in form, structure and size 

1 Prof. Le Conte. Monist, April, 1891. 



24 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 



of organs, which changes are also inherited and 
integrated, as before. 

These two factors are Lamarckian, and relate 
only to changes occurring during individual 
life, and which it is supposed the offspring in- 
herit unchanged. 

3. Natural Selection, or the Survival of the 
Fittest, occurring among individuals, of those 
most in accord with their environment in each 
generation. 

4. Sexual Selection ; the female exercising 
her preference among the male suitors seeking 
her possession, on the basis of greater strength, 
beauty, or attractiveness. In these last named, 
called Darwinian factors, the changes are all 
in the offspring, while the individual remains 
unchanged. 

Still another factor has been more recently 
mentioned, called " Segregate Fecundity " by 
Gulick, and "Homogamy " by Romanes ; the 
selection of those varieties the individuals of 
which are fertile among themselves, but sterile, 
or less fertile, with other varieties, or the parent 
stock. 

These factors, however, seem to many to 
fail of fully accounting for all the phenomena, 



THE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION. 



25 



especially when we consider the development 
of man ; and, hence, we shall be obliged to 
note several limitations o£ the doctrine of 
Evolution, especially relating to this particular. 

Whether we may not confidently expect the 
discovery of some other factor, which will 
supply this need or lack in such a way as to 
relieve the main difficulty, and at the same 
time to obtain for itself general acceptance, 
is not at present by any means certain. 

Professor Le Conte, fully appreciating the 
difficulty, states the demand for some such 
factor very clearly, and insists that the above- 
named factors are not sufficient to explain the 
facts brought to light in the process of human 
development, but that in this case we must add 
to them another factor, — " The conscious, volun- 
tary co-operation in the work of Evolution (of 
man himself), conscious striving for the better- 
ment of the individual and of the race. This 
factor consists essentially in the formation and 
pursuit of ideals. . . In early stages man de- 
veloped much as other animals, unconscious 
and careless whither he tended, and therefore 
with little or no voluntary effort to attain a 
higher stage. But this voluntary factor, this 



26 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

striving toward a goal or ideal, in the individ- 
ual and in the race, increased more and more 
until in civilized communities of modern times 
it has become by far the dominant factor. . . 
This voluntary, rational factor not only assumes 
control itself, but transforms all other factors . 
and uses them in a new way and for its own 
higher purposes. This last is by far the great- 
est change which has ever occurred in the 
history of Evolution. In organic evolution 
nature operates by necessary law without the 
voluntary co-operation of the thing evolving. 
In human progress man voluntarily co-operates 
with nature in the work of evolution, and even 
assumes to take the process mainly into his 
own hands. Organic evolution is by necessary 
law, human progress by free, or at least by 
freer, law. Organic evolution is by a pushing 
upward and onward from below and behind, 
human progress by an aspiration, an attraction 
toward an ideal — a pulling upward and onward 
from above and in front. . . Man, contrary to 
all else in nature, is transformed, not in shape 
by external environment, but in character by 
his own ideals." 

This suggestion of Professor Le Conte, though 



THE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION. 27 



a valuable one, and one that certainly indicates 
the direction in which the solution of the dif- 
ficulties involved in the evolution of the human 
race must be sought, is only a suggestion or 
theory of an individual as yet, and the gener- 
ally-recognized Factors of Evolution are four, 
or at most five, as mentioned above. 

4. It is of course clearly impossible to give 
any adequate and satisfactory statements of the 
Proofs of Evolution within the limits of a 
single paragraph or chapter. 

All such attempts 1 are necessarily more sug- 
gestive than demonstrative. We will, there- 
fore, content ourselves with the brief mention 
of a few considerations bearing upon the sub- 
ject ; leaving the one who would thoroughly 
canvass the multiform array of facts that go to 
substantiate this theory, to consult the more 
technical scientific works upon the various 
branches of the subject. Nor would we be 
understood to claim that the proofs of Evolu- 
tion are complete, in the sense that all the 
stages in the process of development have been 
clearly traced, or all the links of the chain of 

1 Cf. Lectures before the Brooklyn Ethical Assocation. — 
" Proofs of Evolution." 



28 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

descent discovered. This could not reasonably 
be expected at such an early stage in the in- 
vestigation, if the attainment of such complete 
knowledge and insight were conceivably pos- 
sible for man in his present limitations. 

It is important to note, however, while mak- 
ing this disclaimer, that the proofs of the 
doctrine of Evolution do not come from any 
one branch of science. 

It is an induction from many sciences, and a 
belief in it, as the general method of creation 
is strengthened and confirmed by the results 
obtained by these sciences working on entirely 
independent lines of investigation. Astron- 
omy, Chemistry, Geology, Botany, Biology and 
Sociology, each and all bring in their concur- 
rent testimony to the validity of the principle ; 
and, while it is impossible for one who is not a 
special student of science to thoroughly sift the 
evidence in each and all its departments, yet 
we must, if we would credit human testimony 
at all in regions which w r e are not able our- 
selves to explore, accept the conclusion thus 
reached. We turn to Astronomy and learn of 
the development of our present planetary 
system from the primal nebulous vapor. 



THE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION 29 

In Geology we find the record of the grad- 
ual development of the earth until it has 
reached its present state, the early and simple 
forms of life, the growing complexity and 
differentiation, and the upward gradation of 
all forms of life. 

When we consider the existing animal organ- 
isms and discover in man, and elsewhere, ru- 
dimentary organs, inexplicable on any other 
hypothesis, and a general community of struct- 
ure among the thousands of species that 
inhabit the earth ; and when, by experiment 
and observation, we note for ourselves the 
changes which can be brought about by varia- 
tions in environment, and which are taking 
place, for this and other reasons, we feel quite 
inclined to accept the testimony of those who 
are qualified to speak, and to consider Evolu- 
tion as the most probable method of creation. 

5. It must not be supposed that the doctrine 
of Evolution has solved every difficulty ; or 
that it can afford an explanation for every 
mystery, however extravagant may be the 
claims made for it by its more enthusiastic 
advocates. Magnificent as have been its 
achievements in bringing to light the long 



30 EVOLUTION AND TEE IMMANENT GOD. 

hidden law of the connection and development 
of the universe, it has penetrated little, if any, 
within the cloud of mystery which envelops and 
conceals from our view the ultimate origin of the 
primal facts of existence. There are still many 
things the secret of whose being and beginning 
the scientist has not been able to fathom by 
any of his methods of observation or experi- 
ment, and yet which must be accepted as facts, 
most important and fundamental to a complete 
understanding of the universe. 

Evolution has its limitations, its mysteries, its 
uncertainties. To confess this is by no means 
to discredit the theory or to deny its value and 
importance. 

We have learned from the experience of the 
past to look with doubt and suspicion upon 
theologies and scientific theories that have no 
mysteries, and come to us prepared to offer an 
adequate explanation of the whole universe of 
fact or of truth. We have learned to accept 
the mysterious and unexplainable, even the 
paradoxical, as a part of the universe of 
reality. 

Arrogance and infallibility in theory and 
dogma, as in the individual, repel ; while humil- 



THE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION. 



31 



ity attracts, and confessions of limitation and of 
mystery are no indication of weakness, only of 
finiteness, and they give, rather than destroy, 
confidence. 

Evolution leaves the origin of matter, that 
primal and basal factor in the process of de- 
velopment, as much in the dark as ever. It 
may trace back the forms of it with which we 
are familiar, from one degree of complexity to 
one of more simplicity, but the rudimentary 
and ultimate molecule, or atom, remains to be 
accounted for, and Evolution cannot do it. 

Light, so essential for the growth and 
development of plant and animal life, whence 
its origin and what the explanation of its 
action ? We are told that it consists of vibra- 
tions in an ether, but the answer only intro- 
duces new elements to embarrass the prob- 
lem, for they in turn require explanation ; 
and Evolution is obliged to leave the question 
pretty much where it found it. How shall we 
account for the beginnings of plant life, with 
its power of assimilation, growth and repro- 
duction ? It is not of the essence of matter, 
as we know it ; and we cannot produce it 
with any chemical, electric, magnetic, or other 



32 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

force known to science. Here also Evolution 
is silent. 

Nor is the problem of the origin of animal 
life, possessing sensation, the power of locomo- 
tion, instinct, and a measure of intelligence, 
any easier of solution. 

Indeed the mystery deepens at every step, 
and reaches its culmination when we try to 
account for the origin of human life. Man 
possesses all that was noblest and best in what 
preceded him, and adds to his endowment 
even richer acquisitions of moral and spiritual 
potentiality. 

These new powers or forces were introduced 
at various times in connection with the differ- 
ent stages in the process of Evolution, and, 
only by assuming their introduction and grant- 
ing their operation, can we explain the various 
phenomena of existence. Evolution finds a 
place for them in its system, and proclaims the 
universality of law in all their activity, but it 
utterly fails in all its efforts to produce or 
account for them. History tells us of a writer 
who lived some 1,500 years before the begin- 
ning of our era, according to the common 
reckoning, long before the earliest of the 



THE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION. 33 

Greek philosophers, and long before the 
beginnings of scientific investigation. He 
writes of a preliminary and antecedent period 
when the earth was without " form and void/' 
no light, no life. He tells us of the introduc- 
tion of light. He gives us what purports to 
be a history of the creation in outline, and 
hints at the introduction of new forces at 
different periods in the process of the develop- 
ment of the earth and of plant and animal life. 
Living as he did in the childhood of the race, 
he may perhaps be excused for his failure to 
use the latest scientific terminology, when he 
described with substantial accuracy the order 
of the development of the universe. 

Nor do we feel inclined to censure that 
childlike faith, which, viewing the develop- 
ment of each period as a whole, unhesitatingly 
ascribed it, in its entirety, to the divine po- 
tency. 

Evolution is now busy writing a commentary 
upon his words, and may yet even come to ap- 
plaud his faith, as true spiritual insight into 
the essence of the underlying reality, and ac- 
cept his explanation of the primal, basal mys- 
tery — the primal, or first, cause. 
3 



34 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF THE IMMANENT 

GOD. 

Throughout the entire history of thought, 
whether expressed in philosophies or theologies, 
we can trace two prevailing and fundamentally 
opposed conceptions of God, in His relation to 
the universe. 

The one views Him as transcendent, far re- 
moved from the universe of His creation, and 
ruling and regulating it from without ; the 
other finds Him immanent, present in power 
and potency in all created things. 

The one views the universe as a gigantic 
machine, so arranged as to be able to run it- 
self after receiving the primal impulse from the 
hands of its Maker, subject to His general super- 
intendence, and to any interruption of its courses 
or processes, or any change in the same, that the 



DOCTRINE OF THE IMMANENT GOD. 



35 



Ruler of the world may deem desirable or ex- 
pedient from time to time ; the other conceives 
of the universe as a manifestation of God, views 
the creation as a continuous process, and the 
laws of nature as expressions of the will of 
God. 

Closely allied to these more prominent con- 
ceptions, and logically dependent upon, if not 
derived from them, are those of Anthropomor- 
phism and Pantheism ; and these also are in 
turn entirely incongruous, the one with the 
other. The anthropomorphic conception of 
God, which ascribes to the Supreme Being the 
attributes and characteristics of humanity, is a 
natural, if not necessary, result or complement 
of the idea of Him as transcendent. 

This conception has generally been found in 
connection with the conception of God as tran- 
scendent ; as though the religious nature of 
man demanded some compensation for the put- 
ting God at a distance, and would postulate 
likeness in the place of nearness. 

Pantheism also, that doctrine which confuses 
God with the universe of His creation, may be 
said to naturally and inevitably follow from 
the conception of God that regards Him as 



36 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

immanent in the universe, if the necessity of 
holding to and insisting upon His personality 
be once forgotten, or if, as in the case of much 
of the thought of the heathen world, it be not 
felt to any appreciable extent. 

We are, therefore, not surprised to find that 
in all the thought of heathenism the panthe- 
istic doctrine of God largely preponderates. 
In most of their conceptions they were inclined 
to confuse God with the world, though the 
opposite conceptions are also found, and the 
baldest and most extreme Anthropomorphism 
is by no means a stranger to their thought. 
Grecian philosophy as well, in all its forms and 
phases, was to a greater or less extent domi- 
nated by this same pantheistic tendency. Juda- 
ism, on the other hand, was as far on the other 
side, and, in all its distinctive ideas and con- 
ceptions of God, transcendence is the element 
that obtains recognition and maintains the 
supremacy. In its doctrine of God its theology 
may be characterized by transcendence, joined 
with and tempered by a bold Anthropomor- 
phism. Christian theology, however, while 
inheriting much from Judaism, and while ac- 
cepting in its main features the Jewish concep- 



DOCTRINE OF THE IMMANENT GOD. 37 

tion of the character of God and incorporating 
it into its own system, was inclined to a very 
different idea of Him in His relation to the 
world from that entertained by the old dis- 
pensation. 

The Incarnation was a new fact, and one of 
profound meaning and import in this connection. 

Moreover, this fact w r as the central one in 
their thought and the corner-stone upon which 
they would build their system of doctrine, as 
well as their structure of faith. The problem 
of theology in this period was to find an ap- 
propriate place for this transcendent and cul- 
minating event ; or rather, with the life of God 
manifest in the flesh filling the horizon of their 
thought, the bonds of inherited and traditional 
dogma were broken or loosed to such an extent 
as no longer to be felt as a restraint, and the 
Incarnation became the starting-point for and 
the center of all theological inquiry, while all 
other truths had to be arranged anew in their 
order of relation to or dependence upon this 
transcendent event. 

The first chapter of the Gospel of John 
shows how early and how profoundly this 
necessity was felt. 



38 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

There is still another factor which must not 
be lost sight of in this connection ; and that 
is, the influence of Greek Philosophy upon the 
early theologians of the Christian Church. 

Judaism, if we except the few feeble and 
ineffectual attempts made about the time of 
Christ by the Jewish- Alexandrian school, did 
not produce any national philosophy. Their 
intellectual activity was turned in other direc- 
tions, and their circumstances and mental 
characteristics as well were not favorable for 
the production or development of philosophy. 

The Greek Philosophy., however, was highly 
developed and dominant in all intellectual cir- 
cles throughout the Roman world. Its influ- 
ence was by no means inconsiderable among 
the Jews themselves, as the imitative efforts 
of the Jewish- Alexandrian school, mentioned 
above, abundantly show. Moreover, the early 
theologians of the Christian Church were men 
who, as far as they had received any previous 
training, had obtained it from the study of the 
prevailing Greek Philosophy of this period, 
and often in the schools of philosophy them- 
selves. Their modes and methods of thought 
were thus in a large measure determined by 



DOCTRINE OF THE IMMANENT GOD. 



39 



this important influence. Their theology, 
however, is by no means pantheistic ; the per- 
sonality of God is clearly recognized ; but, in 
their conception of the relation of God to the 
universe, the Jewish idea of transcendence no 
longer predominates, and the Christian doctrine 
of the Immanence of God for the first time 
obtains adequate statement and recognition. 
This doctrine is distinctively and essentially a 
Christian doctrine, having much in common 
with the spirit of the best of the Greek phi- 
losophy, but possessing also a recognition of 
the Divine personality, akin to that found in 
the Hebrew theology. 

This conception of God was developed and 
expounded by the early Church Fathers, and 
particularly by Clement, and Origen, and the 
Fathers of the Greek Church. 

Prof. Allen shows, in his exceedingly inter- 
esting book, " The Continuity of Christian 
Thought, 9 ' how this doctrine dominated the 
thought of the early theologians of the 
Church, standing as the corner-stone of many 
of their systems, before the time came when 
all theological thought and investigation was 
controlled and directed by the Hierarchy in 



40 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 



its endeavor to establish and maintain its su- 
premacy in the Christian Church. 

This same author also explains the decadence 
of this doctrine, at one time so prominent in 
Christian thought, in this struggle, from the 
necessity of maintaining the conception of a 
God living far removed from man and inac- 
cessible, that men might be forced to have 
recourse to the priesthood and Hierarchy as 
divinely-appointed mediators, and representa- 
tives of the Deity as well, among men. We 
thus find that Latin thought was opposed to 
the conception of God as immanent, and that 
all through the middle ages it was held in 
abeyance, while the doctrine of transcendence 
was insisted upon and developed by most of 
the leading theologians ; J ohn Scotus Eregina, 
who went almost to the extent of manifest 
pantheism in his theological system, and others, 
here and there, of like or corresponding opin- 
ions, being clearly exceptions, and opposed in 
their thought to the tendency of the age. 

Since the emancipation of theology from 
this enforced slavery to the will and interests 
of the Hierarchy, the doctrine of the imma- 
nence of God has again obtained recognition. 



DOCTRINE OF THE IMMANENT GOB. 41 

It is now commonly asserted that God is both 
immanent and transcendent, in order not to 
sacrifice the idea of His personality to much- 
feared pantheistic tendencies of thought. 

The tendency is, however, as Prof. Allen 
shows, to revert to the earlier conceptions of 
the Greek Fathers, and to emphasize anew the 
Christian doctrine of the Immanent God, as 
affording the most satisfactory standpoint 
from which to view theology and to explain 
the phenomena of nature as well, in their re- 
lation to the Divine will. 

Henry B. Smith, in his Systematic Theology, 
thus defines the doctrine : — 

" God is present everywhere in working, in 
efficiency. He acts in and through every sub- 
stance and thing. On the other hand God has 
also a substantial omnipresence, a presence 
of His substance or essence everywhere." 

Dr. Munger says : 1 "It is the characteristic 
thought of God at present that He is immanent 
in all created things, — immanent yet personal, 
the Life of all lives, the Power of all powers, 
the Soul of the universe." 

There can be little doubt but that the dis- 
!The Freedom of Faith. 



42 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

coveries of Science have, directly or indirectly, 
done much to stimulate and strengthen this 
tendency of thought. 

Looking at the question from the side of 
Science, even such a conservative scientist as 
Prof. Le Conte is forced to the conclusion that, 
" either God is far more closely related with 
nature, and operates it in a more direct way 
than Ave have recently been accustomed to think, 
or else nature operates itself, and needs no God 
at all. There is no middle ground tenable." 

Evolution is by no means necessarily opposed 
to the Christian doctrine of the Immanent God, 
indeed it requires some such supplementary 
conception to afford a basis for the existence of 
the multiform phenomena which it has brought 
to light, to explain the possibility of their oc- 
currence, and to account for the intelligence 
which originated and presides over the whole 
process of development. 

The primal and central teaching of Evolu- 
tion, and indeed of all science and philosophy 
as well, is the universality of the reign of law ; 
a doctrine which receives new and almost daily 
illustration and confirmation from every fresh 
observation and experiment. 



DOCTRINE OF THE IMMANENT GOD. 43 

There are physical laws and there are also 
laws of mind. In accordance with the require- 
ments of one law, one phenomenon, or class of 
phenomena, must be explained; and another 
law gives the reason for another occurrence or 
class of occurrences ; while the law of Evolution 
accounts for the general development of the 
whole cosmic universe. Everywhere we find 
traces of the existence and action of law ; its 
dominion extends as far as the boundaries of 
our observation ; and its behests afford the 
explanation of all that has occurred and in- 
dicate the lines of development and advance in 
the future. 

But what are these laws, so universal and 
all-powerful in their application and potency 
that naught can escape from their controlling 
influence ? 

In accounting for the existence and develop- 
ment of the universe, is it enough to say that 
everything has been brought into its present 
state by the action of universal laws, or, are 
we not obliged in turn to ask for an explana- 
tion of the existence, origin, and potency of 
the laws themselves ? 

However misleading certain forms of expres- 



44 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

sion may be, it is perfectly clear to a sound 
philosophy that law cannot be conceived of as 
a force or power in itself to perform all that of 
which it is urged as the explanation. They 
explain much, it is true ; but they themselves 
require an adequate explanation. 

Laws are but 66 modes of action of omnipo- 
tence/' having no power or reality apart from 
the Divine Being, the expression of whose will 
they are. 

The u universality of law " is a doctrine 
which has been supposed by many, its friends 
and foes alike, to be destructive of a belief in 
the Christian religion ; but what is it, after all, 
but the scientific expression of a well-known 
doctrine of theology — the omnipresence of the 
Immanent God? So also, in like manner, the 
immutability of the laws of nature, a doctrine 
so often opposed by the theologian as fatal 
to all religious belief, is but the statement, in 
scientific language, of a current teaching of 
theology — the immutability of God. 

It is encouraging to see that it is fast becom- 
ing evident to the theologian and scientist alike, 
that the doctrine of Evolution does not, as was 
feared by some and supposed by others, do 



DOCTRINE OF THE IMMANENT GOD. 45 

away with the necessity of a God in explaining 
the facts of the universe ; and that the con- 
viction of the necessity of maintaining the har- 
mony of beliefs in Evolution and in the exist- 
ence of God, conceived of as immanent and yet 
personal, is a growing one ; while we may 
expect Evolution to furnish us with confirma- 
tion and elucidation of a belief most fun- 
damental and important in the Christian 
system. 

Says Professor Fiske : 1 — " The doctrine of 
Evolution, which affects our thought about all 
things, brings before us with vividness the con- 
ception of an ever-present God — not an ab- 
sentee God who once manufactured a cosmic 
machine capable of running itself except for a 
little jog or poke here and there in the shape 
of a special providence. The doctrine of 
Evolution destroys the conception of the 
world as a machine. It makes God our con- 
stant refuge and support, and Nature his true 
revelation : and when all its religious impli- 
cations shall have been set forth, it will be seen 
to be the most potent ally that Christianity has 
ever had in elevating mankind." 

1 Pop. Sci. Mo., Sept., 1891. 



46 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

A recent theological writer 1 also comes to a 
like conclusion with regard to the influence of 
Evolution upon our idea of God : — "In the 
place of a Creator working at the world from 
the outside, it shows us an inherent, all-perva- 
sive Power, permeating all things, active every- 
where, constantly unfolding himself according 
to the eternal order of his own being. Instead 
of an arbitrary Lawgiver imposing his decrees 
upon the world, or himself subject to moral 
laws existing somewhere or other in the universe, 
we have a spiritual Substance, whose own con- 
stitution and mode of being are the eternal law 
of both material and spiritual existence, deter- 
mining the ' stream of tendency that is ever ' 
making for righteousness and happiness, mould- 
ing all things great and small according to the 
principles of his own being. 

" We have a God whom indeed we cannot 
picture as seated on a throne, invested with 
human form and attributes, but whom we can 
realize as being with us ' alway, even unto the 
end of the world,' as immediately present 
everywhere, as one in whom, in deed and in 
truth, we can ' live and move, and have our 

1 Dr. Hark: The Unity of the Truth. 



DOCTRINE OF THE IMMANENT GOD. 



47 



being ; ' a Spirit-principle who can actually 
live in us, whom we can 6 put on/ on whom 
as a foundation we can build up ourselves unto 
the ideal set before us. A God whom we can 
trust, because He is 6 the same yesterday, to-day 
and forevermore/ ' in whom is no variable- 
ness nor shadow of turning/ the one God 
blessed forevermore. ... A God who in the 
truest sense is our Father, our Friend, and our 
Saviour." 

It would seem, therefore, that this concep- 
tion of the Immanent God, so thoroughly in 
harmony with the prevailing trend of scien- 
tific thought, as represented by the doctrine of 
Evolution ; and at the same time in line with 
the ideas of the earliest Christian thinkers, and 
in harmony with the current of modern theo- 
logical development, gives promise of furnishing 
the long-desired basis of agreement, or union, 
between Science and Theology. 

The doctrine of Evolution is itself still in 
the process of development, nor do we believe 
that the doctrines of Theology have attained 
to their final and most complete statement. 
Many philosophies have arisen in the past and 
for a time commanded wide-spread confidence 



48 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

and given promise of great and permanent use- 
fulness, only to be superseded by later and 
more satisfactory statements and explanations 
of truth. This mav be the case with the 
doctrine of Evolution in turn. 

And yet it would seem that a doctrine of 
Evolution which finds its explanation, possibil- 
ity, and reality in the Immanent God, gives 
promise of making a nearer approach, than 
has ever yet been made, to a system of phi- 
losophy of universal scope and application. 



ARGUMENTS FOR THE BEING OF GOD. 49 



CHAPTER IV. 

EVOLUTION AND THE ARGUMENTS FOR THE 
BEING OF GOD. 

Four arguments are usually adduced to es- 
tablish the necessity of the assumption of the 
existence of God in accounting for the facts of 
nature and of consciousness. The Ontological ; 
the Cosmological ; the Teleological ; and the 
Moral, or Historical. 

When the emphasis was put upon the tran- 
scendence of God, it was natural, if not neces- 
sary, to look to these arguments for demonstra- 
tive proof of the being of God ; the establish- 
ment of a logical and necessary connection 
between the universe and its extra-mundane 
Originator. With this end, or requirement, 
in view, the arguments have been elaborated 
with great care by different writers, but with 
varying degrees of success in producing a 



50 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

general certainty of conviction as to their ade- 
quacy, and in answering all objections to their 
validity. 

Man's efforts to demonstrate the being of 
God from the existence of the world and its 
phenomena, the infinite from the finite, the 
eternal from the temporal, could hardly be ex- 
pected to succeed, from the very nature of the 
problem. The considerations adduced as proof 
have value and validity chiefly with those who 
believe in the existence of God upon other 
grounds. 

The being of God must be considered as a 
primal truth ; logic is as powerless to intro- 
duce it within the terms of its formulas, as 
science is unable to extract it from the crucible 
of its researches. 

L Says Dr. Mulford : 1 — 6 Man is conscious 
of the being of the external world, and lives 
and acts in this consciousness, and the being 
of the external world so comes to be appre- 
hended by him. And, further, man is conscious 
of the being of God, and lives and acts in this 
consciousness, and the reality of the being of 
God so comes to him." With the conception 
1 The Republic of God. 



ARGUMENTS FOR THE BEING OF GOD. 51 



of God as immanent in the universe, as " the 
light which lighteth every man coming into the 
world/' the Ontological argument becomes 
little more than a statement of the fact that 
the being of God is a truth primitive in human 
thought and apprehension. Under the influ- 
ence of this conception , we search no longer 
for demonstrations of the being of God, but 
the rather, believing that the being of God is 
the foundation and life of all things, we look 
for manifestations and revelations of God, His 
will and His purposes. We seek knowledge of 
God, and 1 u the knowledge of God comes 
through experience. It is the experience of 
the individual and the family, and the nation in 
the life of humanity." 

We look to these arguments, therefore, for 
indications of the presence and activity of the 
Divine Being in the universe. And, when 
viewed in this light, they have a value and 
cogency which they did not before possess, 
and which the doctrine of Evolution increases, 
rather than diminishes, though at the same 
time it changes somewhat the form of their 
statement and broadens the conceptions in- 
1 The Republic of God. 



52 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

volved in them, especially in the case of the 
argument from design. 

2. The cosmological argument depends upon 
the principle of causation, and may be stated 
in the form of a syllogism : Every effect must 
have an adequate cause. The world is an 
effect. Therefore the world must have had a 
cause, adequate to account for its existence. 

The aim of this argument is to establish the 
existence of an eternal and necessary Being, 
the First Cause. 

Prof. Bascom has shown 1 the impossibility 
of making a transition to the Supreme Being 
from the physical laws of the universe by the 
aid of this principle of causation. He finds 
the law — every effect must have a cause — to in- 
volve : — The duality of all facts, each being 
separated into outward expression and inward 
force. The exact equivalence of each cause and 
its corresponding effect. The uniformity of 
nature as a combination of causes. And, also, 
the unbroken continuity of causes and effects 
in their several series. 

Such an idea of causation fails utterly of 
affording any proof of the existence of God. 
1 Natural Theology. 



ARGUMENTS FOR THE BEING OF GOD. 53 

However far back we trace the connection of 
causes and effects, we shall find no change in 
the form of the facts, and we shall be no nearer 
their ultimate explanation. If at any point we 
arbitrarily suspend the investigation and as- 
sume or postulate a First Cause, we destroy 
the very principle of causation which we have 
accepted and upon which we depend for our 
conclusion ; and such a First Cause " can be 
neither less nor more than an expression of all 
the causes which flow from it." We must 
entirely fail of finding a Supreme Being. 

We are thoroughly persuaded that things 
are united by causal relations and that every 
effect involves a sufficient cause, but we are 
at the same time utterly unable to transcend 
the physical process in the application of the 
law of causation and arrive at the being of God. 
In order to discover the evidences of a mind, 
presiding over and acting through the universe, 
we need to look more broadly upon its facts. 

If we find them to be concurrent and con- 
structive, if these efficient causes, working 
under general laws, are busy working out def- 
inite and comprehensive ends, we can assert 
the existence of final causes, and thus, in these 



54 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 



clear manifestations of the action c£ mind and 
its prevailing, determining influence, find un- 
mistakable indications of the presence and 
activity of the Supreme Being. Prof. Bascom 
asserts 1 that Evolution must exclude all final 
causes. " Efficient causes, existing: as eternal 
forces, control all things. The energies of the 
Universe, like those of a torrent, come pouring 
out of the past and simply spread out and over 
the future as an open field. Guidance, di- 
rection, shaping conditions of all sorts are al- 
ready within them. They neither call for nor 
are capable of any modification toward any end 
whatever." Dr. McCosh, however, does not 
share in this view, but has said in a recent 
article 2 that : — " It is generally admitted by 
evolutionists, by none more fully than Prof. 
Huxley, that the theory of Evolution does not 
undermine or interfere in any way with the 
doctrine of Final Cause." Indeed, it would 
seem that the doctrine of Evolution was cal- 
culated to afford most powerful support to this 
doctrine, for it endeavors to combine and 
comprehend all the phenomena of the universe 
under one conception, in one system. It is a 
1 Natural Theology. 2 Independent, Oct. 10th, 1889. 



ARGUMENTS FOB THE BEING OF GOD. 55 

system of orderly development, the complex 
from the simple, along well defined lines, in 
accordance with universal laws. 

Divine action or interference from without 
may not be required by this theory, but the 
continual presence of the Divine potency and 
energy, and the constant direction of the 
Divine will is a necessary assumption, if we 
are to understand or account for its progress 
and processes. Nothing less than the assump- 
tion of an Immanent God can explain the 
orderly development of the universe, the exist- 
ence of efficient causes, of all-embracing and 
controlling laws, and their unvarying potency 
and consistence. Efficient causes and universal 
laws cannot be considered the final and basal 
reality of the universe ; they in turn require 
explanation. 

No comprehensive and intelligent inquiry 
into the structure of the universe can fail in 
the discovery of final causes ; Evolution gives 
abundant evidence of their existence ; and they 
involve a belief in God. 

It is a singular fact, however, 1 " that when- 
ever we find out how anything is done, our 

1 Frances Power Cobbe : Darwinism in Morals. 



56 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

first conclusion seems to be that God did not 
do it. No matter how wonderful, how beauti- 
ful, how infinitely complex and delicate has 
been the machinery which has worked, perhaps 
for centuries, perhaps for millions of ages, to 
bring about some beneficent result, — if we can 
but catch a glimpse of the wheels, its divine 
character disappears. The machinery did it 
all. It would be altogether superfluous to look 
within." 

3. If we now turn to the details of the ar- 
gument for the being of God drawn from the 
evidences of Design in the universe, we shall 
find that the doctrine of Evolution renders 
necessary a complete change in the point of 
view from which the facts which enter into 
this argument are to be regarded ; and, at the 
same time, that it largely broadens the scope 
of the argument and strengthens its validity. 
With the old view of the immediate and special 
creation of the various species and forms of 
life, as found now upon the earth, the argu- 
ment was based upon the evidences of design 
seen in each species or individual, looking upon 
it as a finished and complete product of creative 
wisdom. 



ARGUMENTS FOR THE BEING OF GOD. 57 

With the new view, the view of Evolution, 
which often discovers rudimentary organs hav- 
ing no present use, and even dangerous to the 
health and life of the organism, and which 
considers no form of structure or life as com- 
plete or perfect in itself, but, the rather, a step 
in or a stage of the process of development, 
which is still going on and has by no means 
reached its goal and consummation, and which 
teaches that these very adaptations of the 
organs and organism, which have been sup- 
posed to afford evidence of design, are them- 
selves, in a measure, at least, due to the influ- 
ence and effect of the environment upon the 
organism, surely we must change the form of 
the argument, if it is to have any longer force 
or validity. This necessary change, however, 
instead of destroying the force of the argu- 
ment, as it was originally presented, greatly 
broadens its scope and application, and corre- 
spondingly strengthens it. 

It is now no longer an argument based upon 
an adaptation of special organs to special re- 
quirements of circumstance and environment, 
thus depending for its convincing power in a 
great measure upon the suppositions and as- 



58 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

sumptions of the individual observer, but it de- 
pends upon the whole determining web of de- 
sign and purpose which may be traced through 
the entire fabric of creation. It is no longer 
an induction from the special or particular, 
but it is the convincing and unavoidable con- 
clusion and teaching of the tendency and 
course of the whole process of development. 
In other words, Evolution itself is one all- 
embracing system of design, which requires for 
its explanation nothing less than the existence 
of the Immanent God. Evolution, instead of 
destroying this argument, takes it up out of 
the region of supposition, assumption and 
special pleading, and places it upon the secure 
foundation of universal and all-controlling law. 

This fact, and the consequent gain to Chris- 
tian Theism coming so unexpectedly from this 
source, is being fully recognized on all sides 
by Christian thinkers : — 

Says Dr McCosh : 1 — " The proof from design 
proceeds on the observation of things as adapted 
one to another to accomplish a good end, and 
is equally valid whether we suppose adjust- 
ment to have been made at once or produced 
1 The Religious Aspect of Evolution. 





ARGUMENTS FOE THE BEING OF GOD. 59 

by a process which has been going on for 
millions of years. There is proof of a design- 
ing mind in the eye as it is now presented to 
us, with its coats and humors, rods and cones, 
retina and nerves, all co-operating with each 
other and with the beams that fall upon them 
from some millions of miles away. But there 
is further proof in the agents having been 
brought into relation by long processes all 
tending to the one end. I value a gift received 
from the hand of a father ; but I appreciate 
it more when I learn that the father has been 
using many and varied means to earn it for 
me. 

Dr. Munger, in an article upon " Evolu- 
tion and the Faith," 1 asserts that, — " Evolution 
strengthens the argument from design. This 
argument may be based upon the course of 
civilization, or on the structure of the eye, or 
on the working of love. Paley's argument, as 
Bishop Temple has well shown, stands, with 
slight modifications, on as strong a basis as 
ever. But if we can look at the universe both 
as a whole and in all its processes and in all 
ages, and find one principle working every- 
1 Century, vol. 32, page 108. 



60 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOB. 



where, binding together all things, linking one 
process to another with increasing purpose, and 
steadily pressing towards a full revelation of 
God's goodness, we find the argument strength- 
ened by as much as we have enlarged the field 
of its illustration. But if one part of the 
universe is abruptly shut off from another, if 
no stronger bond of unity be assigned to it 
than that of creative energy, and only the 
near-lying fields of design are used, then the 
argument is abridged and may even fall short 
of an absolute conclusion." 

H. W. Beecher, in his sermon on " Divine 
Providence and Design," 1 while showing that 
the argument may sometimes fail when applied 
to single acts or phenomena, concludes that, 
" If single acts would evince design, how much 
more a vast universe, that by inherent laws 
gradually builded itself, and then created its 
own plants and animals, a universe so adjusted 
that it left by the way the poorest things, and 
steadily wrought toward more complex, inge- 
nious, and beautiful results ! Who designed 
this mighty machine, created matter, gave to it 
its laws, and impressed upon it that tendency 
1 Evolution and Religion. 



ARGUMENTS FOR THE BEING OF GOD. 61 

which has brought forth the almost infinite 
results on the globe, and wrought them into 
a perfect system? Design by wholesale is 
grander than design by retail." 

4. The Moral Argument depends upon the 
facts of man's own nature as they are revealed 
to him in consciousness. The world shows 
traces of intelligence, but they can only be 
recognized by an intelligent being, and man is 
directly conscious of the possession and per- 
sonification of intelligence within himself. 

While the whole course of nature seems 
bounded by the stern necessity of unchanging 
laAV and determined thereby, man is conscious 
in himself of freedom developed out of, and, at 
the same time, inhering in, necessity. 

Moreover, man also finds in himself a sense 
of right and wrong, entirely distinct from that 
which is true, agreeable or expedient ; independ- 
ent of any influence of the intellect or will, 
and asserting an authority which 
and which cannot be explained as being derived 
from himself. These facts of man's nature, 
indicating as they do the existence of a soul 
differing in all its distinctive capabilities, as- 
pirations and necessities from the surrounding 



62 EVOLUTION AND TEE IMMANENT GOD. 



world, require for their explanation an intelli- 
gent, voluntary and moral Divine Personality, 
and give evidence of His presence and potency. 
Viewing man in his relation to the family and 
the state, this argument has also a historical 
side. 

In these lines we can trace the realization of 
the moral or ethical idea throughout the 
development and organization of society. It 
thus becomes an appeal to the universal con- 
sciousness of mankind, as manifested in the 
establishment and development of human in- 
stitutions, and, as an unconscious and universal 
testimony to the presence and power of ethical 
ideas and ideals, it has great weight and 
evidences the presence and activity of God 
in the whole course of human life : 1 — u This 
process of the historical world which, in 
the realization of an ethical life, tends to- 
wards righteousness and freedom, must pro- 
ceed from a force in which subsist qualities 
of righteousness and freedom. But these are 
qualities of will. They are the very elements 
of personality. The energy working in right- 
eousness and towards freedom cannot be an 
1 Mulf ord : The Republic of God. 



ARGUMENTS FOR THE BEING OF GOD. 63 

indeterminate force or thing, and cannot be 
determined by contingency, as a thing in 
relation with a thing." 

There is nothing in Evolution to impair the 
validity of this argument. The doctrine of 
Evolution does away with no one of the facts 
of consciousness. 

On the contrary, Evolution must accept all 
these facts and find a place for them in its 
philosophy. 

Evolution alone can account for man's con- 
nection with the lower forms of life and sub- 
jection to the lowest conditions of earthly ex- 
istence, while at the same time according him 
a position representative of the highest forms of 
life, with the prospect of further development 
and advance in the line of the moral and the 
spiritual. Formerly man's superiority over 
nature was assumed on the basis of the facts 
of consciousness, and he was supposed to have 
been the product of a distinct creation, but 
Evolution regards him as the representative 
of that type toward which all the pro- 
cesses of creation have been tending, and for 
whose realization all that preceded has been 
but the preliminary and preparatory stage. 



64 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

"With the doctrine of Evolution the universe is 
one ; the course of human history continuous ; 
while the highest stage of development is the 
spiritual and moral, and the realization of 
ethical ideals is the end and aim of the 
whole process of development. 

Evolution thus connects the Moral and 
Historical Argument with that of Design, 
giving to the latter a new breadth of meaning 
and application, and to the former a correspond- 
ing" debt of significance as indicative of that 
which is the most essential in the Divine 
character and purposes — the moral and the 
spiritual, grounded upon and developed in 
the voluntary and personal. 

The connection of God with the world being 
no longer merely assumed on the basis of a 
formal logic ; but accepted as a fact most 
essential to any understanding or explanation 
of the being, beginning, development and prog- 
ress of the universe, both material and spirit- 
ual ; we no longer depend upon special and 
isolated facts to establish the reality of the 
Divine existence, nor stake our faith upon any 
conclusions obtained by the processes of human 
reasoning. 



ARGUMENTS FOR THE BEING OF GOD. 65 

The visible universe — " The Time-vesture of 
the Eternal ; " law and its requirements ; life 
and its potencies ; mind, intelligence, morality 
and personality; and the whole process of 
development as it advances toward the realiza- 
tion of high and spiritual ideals — these are our 
evidences of the existence of a supreme and 
underlying Reality, and in these we would fain 
see manifestations of the presence and activity 
of the Immanent God, of whom the apostle 
said : — 

" In Him was life : and the life was the light 
of men." 
5 



66 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 



CHAPTER V. 

EVOLUTION AND THE BENEFICENCE OF GOD. 

The question of the beneficence, or good- 
ness, of God ranks in importance with that of 
His existence, and the one seems inseparably 
connected with the other. 

On the one hand, we may say that a Being, 
complete in power and wisdom, such as the 
preceding arguments have revealed to us as 
present in and presiding over the universe, must 
also be perfect in goodness, and the logic of 
our position may seem invincible. 

And yet, on the other hand, when we try 
to take the direct testimony of nature and of 
human life and experience as to what kind of 
a Being it is who rules the universe and regu- 
lates the course of human life as well, there 
are many considerations, which, especially when 
viewed from the standpoint of science, go to cast 



THE BENEFICENCE OF GOD. 67 

doubt upon the benevolence of the Creator and 
Ruler ; and this doubt involves all the evi- 
dences of the presence of God in the world 
in darkness, and its natural result or outcome 
is nothing short of atheism ; the formal deduc- 
tions of logic having little power to withstand 
arguments drawn from the observed course of 
nature and the dark side of human life and 
experience which appeals so directly and 
strongly to the sensibilities of the observer." 

A recent writer 1 has asked the question, — 
" Is God good ? " and gives, in answering it, a 
strong statement of the dark side of the prob- 
lem, that the atheist might not be able longer 
to say, — " Those who believe in a God of love 
must close their eyes to the phenomena of life, 
or garble the universe to suit their theory." 

Nature is found to be " orderly, wise, 
beautiful, mysterious, terrible, remorseless, 
cruel," or, as Stuart Mill has said, " Nature 
impales men, breaks them as if on the wheel, 
casts them to be devoured by wild beasts, 
burns them to death, crushes them with stones 
like the first Christian martyrs, starves them 
with hunger, freezes them with cold, poisons 

1 E. S. Phelps : The Struggle for Immortality. 



68 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

them by the quick or slow venom of her ex- 
halations, and has hundreds of other hideous 
deaths in reserve, such as the ingenious cru- 
elty of a Nabis or a Domitian never sur- 
passed. All this Nature does with the most 
supercilious disregard both of mercy and of 
justice, emptying her shafts upon the best and 
noblest indifferently with the meanest and the 
worst." 

In the course of human life and the experi- 
ences of society, suffering, injustice and op- 
pression are found to largely predominate, 
and the goodness of God is involved in a dark- 
ness of misery and mystery which faith and 
revelation alone can penetrate. 

Without doubt the conclusions of this 
writer will seem to many to be extreme and 
based upon only a partial survey of the facts 
which have a bearing upon the case. It is 
true, nevertheless, that Natural Theology 
must ever fail of furnishing a clear and in- 
dubitable demonstration of the goodness of 
God because of the necessary limitations of 
its view. The mystery of the universe and its 
working is too deep for the human mind to 
penetrate, or the human mind itself is at pres- 



THE BENEFICENCE OF GOB. 69 

ent unable to solve the problem. The most 
that we can presume to ask from science is 
that it should not involve the problem in 
greater obscurity, or increase the many and 
formidable difficulties and objections which 
must occur to any thoughtful mind, that looks 
out upon the universe and the workings of 
society with sympathy for all suffering and 
indignation for every wrong and injustice, real 
or imaginary. There seems to be nothing in 
the doctrine of Evolution calculated to aggra- 
vate this difficult problem : on the contrary, 
while it cannot bring us directly into the pres- 
ence of the God of love or entirely dissipate the 
clouds which for the time seem to darken the 
brightness of the manifestations of His benefi- 
cence, and while it is obliged, as all scientific 
theories and all theologies as well, to leave 
many problems unsolved, it suggests many 
considerations alleviating the difficulties, and 
illustrates in many ways the beneficence of the 
Creator. 

The evolutionist views the world as an un- 
finished picture : the canvas has been stretched 
— it is the universe of nature and of human 
life : the colors, of sunshine and shadow, of 



70 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

joy and sorrow, of evil and of good, are ready 
mixed : the plan and general purpose of this 
stupendous study may be faintly discerned : 
but there is still much of obscurity and uncer- 
tainty, due to the unfinished state of the 
work : and only he who knows the mind of the 
great Artist can, even in imagination, discern 
anything of the details or comprehend the 
glory of the whole : to all others it is one 
wilderness of color, one chaos of unintelligible 
form and feature. 

Man himself is in the process of evolution : 
he stands comparatively at the beginning of a 
great and far-reaching system and cannot, 
therefore, be expected to be able to under- 
stand the process as a whole. 

The development and realization of the 
moral is but in its incipiency, and evils, diffi- 
culties, and delays are perhaps characteristic of 
the early dawn of a day which may soon 
exhibit great and unexpected gains, unpre- 
cedented growth, and overwhelming compensa- 
tions for all the darkness and coldness of the 
early morning. 

It is true all this is, in a great measure, 
merely the hope of the future ; but it is a well- 



THE BENEFICENCE OF GOB. 71 

grounded hope, built upon the development 
and the advancement of the past, and in har- 
mony with the evident tendency o£ the pres- 
ent. If we believe the end of all develop- 
ment to be the moral, we must also admit that 
man in his present immaturity can hardly be 
considered a competent critic of comprehensive 
moral discipline, either in its methods or ends. 
His ideas of goodness, even while he is 
discussing the evidence furnished by the uni- 
verse of the goodness of God, are not always 
by any means consistent or satisfactory. 
Suffering and evil are not necessarily syno- 
nyms ; nor are happiness and joy the only 
products of that love which is working for 
moral ends and attainments. Moreover, we 
ourselves are subject to moral discipline, and 
that not by our own choice or election, and 
" all chastening seemeth for the present to be 
not joyous, but grievous : yet afterward it 
yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them, that have 
been exercised thereby, even the fruit of right- 
eousness." 

Too often we desire pleasure more than 
virtue, happiness rather than holiness. 

In our attempts to understand others and 



72 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

appreciate their experiences, we are obliged to 
look on from the outside, seeing only the hard 
conditions which appeal to our sympathy and 
compassion, little appreciating the inward need 
or understanding the true and loving ministry 
which seeks the development of the good rather 
than the maintenance of the pleasant, which 
would establish blessedness in the place of 
happiness, and lead the object of its attention 
and care into the assured and permanent joys 
of the higher life, even at the expense of many 
of the pleasures of the lower existence. 

If we accept the idea of a moral system and 
moral discipline, we must expect that in the 
action of moral laws suffering will follow sin 
as its penalty unavoidably : and such suffering, 
while evidencing the action of wise and benef- 
icent law which has as its aim the development 
of holiness, cannot be considered as militating 
against the goodness of God ; indeed it must be 
regarded as an indication of the wisdom of His 
love. 

Moreover, it is more than probable that we 
exaggerate the amount of human suffering, in 
our conceptions of it, by joining to and pred- 
icating of the external states and conditions 



THE BENEFICENCE OF GOD. 73 

of others coming under our observation, our 
own feeling, or the feelings we imagine we 
should have in like circumstances. In our own 
experience we find the internal and the external 
constantly adjusting themselves to each other, 
and so producing the maximum of happiness 
with the minimum of pain. The most intense 
suffering is produced only by sudden changes 
in the one before such a harmony or equilibrium 
is approximated. It is highly probable that 
the sum of happiness, or of sorrow, in the life 
of each person living, in each period of history 
or each stage of civilization, is much nearer 
equal than we have been accustomed to sup- 
pose from the judgment we have been in the 
habit of making of the lot and experiences 
of others, on the basis of feelings developed 
in our own inner lives by our peculiar and 
personal experiences and environment. 

However this may be, it is clear that it would 
be unfair to assert that the suffering that is 
incident to the development of righteousness, 
necessary as a spur for intellectual growth, 
involved in the realization and consciousness of 
happiness itself, or indeed that which is in- 
cident to life in all its higher and worthier 



74 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

forms, can, in any way, or to any extent, be 
opposed to the conception of a beneficent God. 
On the contrary, it would seem that much of 
what we account as suffering had clearly its 
ministry of mercy and blessing, and might be 
given a place in the plan and administration of 
the God of love and of grace. 

Besides the above-mentioned considerations, 
mainly preliminary to any direct attempt to 
adduce proof of the beneficence of God, which 
are inferred from or strengthened by the doctrine 
of Evolution, this doctrine is also of value to 
us as affording direct and positive evidence 
upon this subject. Evolution is a doctrine of 
universal, all-embracing law ; and it is clearly 
an evidence of beneficence that the universe 
should be governed by law, and that in its 
unfolding one stage or phase should follow 
another in the course of an orderly development 
and progression, rather than that all should be 
determined by the caprice of chance or the 
decree of an arbitrary fiat. Surely the method 
of Evolution is well suited to man and his 
faculties. Man, gathering experience from the 
past, looks forward to and provides for the 
future. If it were not for the uniformity and 



THE BENEFICENCE OF GOD. 75 



consistency of the laws o£ nature, it would not 
be possible for him to plan or act ; nor could 
he maintain his own existence for any consider- 
able period of time. 

If there were no uniform laws and invari- 
able methods of procedure in the course of 
nature, man could not, as now, by putting 
himself in harmony with them and by taking 
advantage of their observed methods of work- 
ing, achieve any success or make any advance- 
ment in any line of endeavor, whether physical, 
mental or moral. 

Moreover, the extended interaction and com- 
bination of various laws produce as a resultant 
a chance element which is of the utmost im- 
portance in relieving the routine and monotony 
of existence, and in stimulating mental develop- 
ment as well. 

With the consciousness of our own freedom, 
guaranteed to us by the requirements of the 
higher and spiritual law, there is no reason 
why we should fear the tyranny of law, or 
hesitate in acknowledging its benefits. 

If it is regarded by us as the expression of 
the will of the Immanent God, we must rejoice 
in its supremacy and prevalence and regard its 



76 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

workings with confidence. The laws which 
govern the universe are all constructive, and in 
their action they express a prevailing benig- 
nant purpose. Not that evil and suffering do 
not follow in the train of law, or rather from 
its transgression. 

But even these untoward results are neces- 
sary to call attention to the meaning and scope 
of the law, that its true purpose may be seen 
and that man may be able thus intelligently to 
take advantage of its behests for the attainment 
of valuable and beneficent results ; and the law 
itself has only reference to order and well- 
being. 

The laws which govern the action of fire, 
steam and electricity, and which regulate the 
seasons, admit of much devastation and loss, 
when transgressed or disregarded, but they are 
most serviceable to man when properly used, 
and upon them depends much of the glory of 
the achievements of our civilization and the 
productiveness and beauty of the world we 
inhabit. 

It is only under the action of and in har- 
mony with appropriate laws that health and 
mental and spiritual activity are achieved and 



THE BENEFICENCE OF GOD. 77 

maintained, and thus a vast amount of happi- 
ness is enjoyed : while it is the transgression o£ 
these same laws that produces sickness, igno- 
rance and vice, and thus occasions so much of 
the pain and suffering of the world. 

As these laws come to be better understood, 
even as a better comprehension of them is 
forced upon the human race by the penalties 
which their transgression exacts, we may ex- 
pect to see man ever increasingly take advan- 
tage of their beneficent intent ; a larger result- 
ant physical, mental and moral robustness, 
and an ever increasing preponderance of happi- 
ness and pleasure in the world. 

The method of Evolution is also a beneficent 
one, because it implies a progressive advance. 
It is true retrogression and failure are some- 
times found ; but one form of life only fails 
that it may give place to a better and stronger 
one ; and the general course and tendency of 
the process has been from the first that of a 
steady advance. The " survival of the fittest " 
is the law of this development, and this insures 
that, while many forms of lif e shall each have 
their day and opportunity, the weak and useless 
shall be left behind, while only the strong and 



78 EYOL UTIOy AND THE IMMANENT GOB. 

capable shall remain to carry forward the pro- 
cess of Evolution with ever advancing steps to 
higher levels of attainment. 

The bearing of this doctrine upon the ques- 
tion under consideration depends entirely upon 
our definition of ' ; the fittest." Fortunately 
Evolution has itself defined this word for 
us in the unmistakable terms of fact, and this 
definition agrees well with the intuitions of 
our hio-her natures. The sroal of the evolu- 
tionary process is not huge proportion, or great 
physical strength, nor yet superior cunning. 
These qualities were found in the earlier forms, 
which were soon forced to give place to other 
and more enduring species. 

No beauty of foliage or flower in the vege- 
table kingdom ; no glory of blended colors in 
the plumage of the bird ; no speed in locomo- 
tion, no grace of movement and no strength 
of bodily organs in the brute could satisfy the 
demands of the evolutionary process. Man is 
therefore developed, gifted above all that pre- 
ceded him with that intelligence which ensures 
his rule over all nature, animate and inanimate, 
and continually demonstrates his fitness and 
ability to survive over all preceding forms of 



THE BENEFICENCE OF GOD. 



79 



life. But the process of differentiation and 
development does not stop here. The sifting 
process still goes on among humanity itself 
without cessation or abatement, and many there 
are, individuals and nations as well, that are 
left by the way in the onward march of civili- 
zation and progress, while others press forward 
and, with glorious achievements, demonstrate 
their fitness to survive and give tone and 
direction to the coming generations. Vice, 
ignorance and barbarism are the qualities or 
forces which hinder the onward movement of 
society and destroy the life and influence of 
nations and of men ; while virtue and intelli- 
gence are the qualities which alone have power 
to preserve and energize. In the history of the 
race, whether mankind be considered individ- 
ually or collectively, it is the wise and good 
that are found to survive and maintain their 
power and influence ; they are the fittest. 

" Righteousness exalteth a nation : but sin 
is a reproach to any people." This is the 
teaching of Revelation and of Evolution as 
well. It would thus seem that the law of the 
" survival of the fittest" is capable of furnish- 
ing us most trustworthy evidence that He who 



80 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

presides over the process of Evolution, and the 
expression of whose will it is, is beneficent 
and intends the final triumph of righteousness, 
and is working throughout every stage of 
human progress for the consummation of His 
design and the full manifestation of His plan 
of love. 

And yet, when we look at the animal king- 
dom, the struggle for existence involved in 
this beneficent law has another and an exceed- 
ingly dark side which many find hard to rec- 
oncile with the goodness of God. 

This objection or difficulty has been most 
forcibly stated by a writer quoted by A. R. 
Wallace in his " Darwinism " : — " Pain, grief, 
disease and death, are these the inventions of 
a loving God? That no animal shall rise to 
excellence except by being fatal to the life of 
others, is this the law of a kind Creator ? It 
is useless to say that pain has its benevolence, 
and that massacre has its mercy, why is it so 
ordained that bad should be the raw material 
of good ? Pain is not the less pain because it 
is useful ; murder is not the less murder be- 
cause it is conducive to development. Here is 
blood upon the hand still, and all the perfumes 



THE BENEFICENCE OF GOD. 81 

of Arabia will not sweeten it." Mr. Wallace, 
however, after carefully examining the objec- 
tion, concludes, — " That the popular idea of 
the struggle for existence entailing misery and 
pain on the animal world is the very reverse 
of the truth. What it really brings about is, 
the maximum of life, with the minimum of 
suffering and pain. Given the necessity of 
death and reproduction — and without these 
there could have been no progressive develop- 
ment of the organic world — it is difficult even 
to imagine a system by which a greater balance 
of happiness would have been secured." 

Moreover, it is doubtless true that we habit- 
ually exaggerate the amount of suffering en- 
dured by animals. 

With our nervous organism, differing greatly 
in extent and sensitiveness from any found in 
the animal kingdom, and to an extent that 
cannot well be exaggerated from that found 
in the generality of animals ; even when we 
attempt to make allowance for these differences, 
we are likely to magnify, out of all due pro- 
portion, the sufferings of animals, judging of 
them by our own experiences. Animal life is 

a life of instinct, where stimuli largely take 
6 



82 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOB. 

the place of sensations, and consciousness is a 
term of no real significance. Thus brute life 
is free from a very large portion of the suffer- 
ing incident to the life of man. Intellectual 
suffering : the anxieties of foresight and the 
terrors of apprehension must also be foreign 
to the experience of the animal: and these 
comprise the greater, or, at least, the most acute 
and oppressive, part of the sufferings of man- 
kind. 

The problem of the world's suffering has 
never obtained a complete and satisfactory 
solution. 

The old puzzle of Theology and of Phi- 
losophy, as to the origin and ministry of evil 
and suffering, comes to us now in a scientific 
form, and, while Evolution is not able to remove 
every difficulty, it does not complicate the 
problem, and, on the whole, it may be said to 
powerfully aid and reinforce our conception of 
an Immanent God whose beneficence is illus- 
trated in the process of development, and will, 
we believe, become ever increasingly manifest 
as we come more fully to understand that pro- 
cess, and as its ideals and aims are more fully 
realized. 



THE BENEFICENCE OF GOB. 83 

As we look upon the universe to catch some 
reflection of the Divine glory and beneficence, 
we find that we have neither the breadth of 
view nor strength and penetration of vision to 
make out more than the most naked outlines 
of the manifestation which we believe to lie 
there reflected : — " For now we see in a mirror, 
darkly (in a riddle)." But we are glad for 
what we are permitted to see, for it strengthens 
our faith and hope and enables us to wait 
with more confidence for that time when we 
shall see all reality " face to face." 

" For we know in part, and we prophesy in 
part : but when that which is perfect is come, 
that which is in part shall be done away." 



84 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 



CHAPTER VI. 

EVOLUTION AND REVELATION * THE INCARNA- 
TION. 

All Revelation may be said to be included 
and to find its highest and most complete ex- 
pression in the Incarnation. In all distinct- 
ively Christian thought Christ is the centre and 
moving power of the universe; the explana- 
tion and ground of existence of all things; 
the source of all life : — 

" In the beginning was the Word. . . . All 
things were made by him ; and without him 
was not anything made that hath been made. 
. . . There was the true light, even the light 
which lighteth every man, coming into the 
world. . . . And the Word became flesh, and 
dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, 
glory as of the only begotten from the 
Father), full of grace and truth." 



THE INCARNATION. 



85 



These words of the Apostle John may be 
taken as a synopsis of the course of Divine 
Revelation, or the Divine manifestation in the 
history of the world. 

Looking merely at the Revelation given to 
us in the Bible, the author of the Epistle to 
the Hebrews tells us that, " God, having of 
old time spoken unto the fathers in the proph- 
ets by divers portions and in divers manners, 
hath at the end of these days spoken unto us 
in his Son." 

The Incarnation may, therefore, be consid- 
ered as the consummation of Revelation and 
as inclusive of all Revelation, at least in the 
sense that the greater includes the less. 

The Christian doctrine of the Immanent 
God also depends upon and finds its highest 
and clearest expression in the Incarnation : in- 
deed, without this doctrine of the Incarnation, 
it could hardly be maintained without degen- 
erating into pantheism, and Christianity itself 
loses its power and coherence, both as a sys- 
tem of thought and as a religion. 

It is, therefore, to the relation of the doc- 
trine of Evolution to, or its effect upon, this 
doctrine and its consequent attitude toward all 



86 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

Revelation that the Christian thinker looks 
with the greatest interest, not unmixed with 
apprehension. It is not so much that we ex- 
pect Evolution to deal directly with this doc- 
trine, by endeavoring to prove or disprove it, 
as such a function clearly lies beyond or out- 
side of its sphere. 

We have not been in the habit of expecting 
any special light or help in understanding or 
explaining the methods of the Divine Revela- 
tion from any theory of science based upon 
deductions from the observed facts of nature, 
nor, on the other hand, have we been willing 
to accept any strictures on Revelation or the 
possibility of its occurrence from this quarter. 
We have, in general, been content to maintain 
the inability of empirical science, based upon 
natural law and the facts of observation, to 
cope with this problem. 

Evolution, however, is being urged as a 
universal philosophy : it believes the universe 
to be one : the processes of development 
throughout this universe to move on the same 
or on parallel lines : and the general method 
of all development to be the same, however 
the details may vary. It is, therefore, an 



* 



THE INCARNATION. 87 

interesting question as to what view this new 
philosophy will find itself constrained to take 
of this central and basal doctrine of Christian- 
ity. It is not difficult to discern a likeness or 
parallelism between the manifestations of God 
afforded by the Argument from Design and 
the Cosmological, Moral and Historical Argu- 
ments and the two Revelations, the one by the 
medium of creation, and the other through 
man's own spiritual nature, mentioned in the 
passage already quoted from the Gospel of 
John. In like manner, can we find any place 
in the system of Evolution for "The Word 
became flesh" — the doctrine of the Incarna- 
tion? 

Is this transcendent event in any sense pre- 
figured in, or suggested by, the earlier stages 
in the process of Evolution, or can it be con- 
ceived of in harmony with the observed meth- 
ods of the Divine working, which Evolution 
has made known to us? 

If the Incarnation be accepted as a veritable 
fact, we must admit into our system the intro- 
duction of a new force or cause. We thus 
postulate a new stage in the process of Crea- 
tion or Evolution, or a new and spiritual 



88 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

creation. Can Evolution, with its doctrine of 
the gradual development of all nature, organic 
and inorganic, and of man up from the lower 
forms of life, admit of the introduction of a 
new cause and the possibility of a still higher 
stage of development ? Would not the intro- 
duction of such a force or cause break the 
continuity of the whole process and prove fa- 
tal to Evolution itself as a system ? An an- 
swer to these questions can only be given 
after noting the requirements of the theory 
and its necessities of assumption at the differ- 
ent stages of progress or transition, from the 
inorganic to the organic, from the vegetable 
to the animal, etc. 

If the doctrine of Evolution, beginning 
with the primal forms of matter, is able, with- 
out admitting any new force or cause to ac- 
count for all the preceding stages of, and 
transitions in, the process, surely it will be un- 
willing now to admit of the introduction of 
any new element. 

If, however, at every stage in the develop- 
ment of nature it is obliged to admit new 
elements or forces to account for the changes 
observed and the new direction and increase 



THE INCARNATION. 



89 



in breadth and scope of the process, it cannot 
have now any fundamental objection to the 
acceptance of any new element which may be 
capable of explaining a further advance in the 
process of development, in line with that which 
has preceded, and otherwise unexplained. In- 
deed, by all the analogy of what it has had of 
experience in the past, it will be looking for 
and expecting some such discovery, some new 
and higher stage in the process, brought about, 
as the preceding steps in advance have been, 
by the introduction of a new element, or the 
action of a new force. 

That the latter supposition is clearly in har- 
mony with the facts of the case is well shown 
by the statements, or concessions, of Mr. 
Wallace in his recent volume. 1 

In considering the origin of man, he shows 
that in the development of the organic world 
there are at least three distinct stages where 
we must of necessity assume that some new 
power or force has been introduced or has come 
into action : — 

" The first stage is the change from inorganic 
to organic, when the earliest vegetable cell, or 
1 Darwinism. 



90 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 



living protoplasm out of which it arose, first 
appeared. This is often imputed to a mere 
increase of complexity of chemical compounds ; 
but increase of complexity, with consequent 
instability, even if we admit that it may have 
produced protoplasm as a chemical compound, 
could certainly not have produced living pro- 
toplasm — protoplasm which has the power 
of growth and of reproduction, and of that 
continuous process of development which has 
resulted in the marvellous variety and complex 
organization of the whole vegetable kingdom. 
. . . The next stage is still more marvellous, 
still more completely beyond all possibility of 
explanation by matter, its laws and forces. It 
is the introduction of sensation or conscious- 
ness, constituting the fundamental distinction 
between the animal and vegetable kingdoms. 
Here all idea of mere complication of structure 
producing the result is out of the question. 
We feel it to be altogether preposterous to 
assume that at a certain stage of complexity of 
atomic constitution and as a necessary result of 
that complexity alone, an ego should start into 
existence, a thing that feels, that is conscious 
of its own existence. 



THE INCARNATION. 



91 



" Here we have the certainty that something 
new has arisen, a being whose nascent con- 
sciousness has gone on increasing in power and 
definiteness till it has culminated in the higher 
animals. No verbal explanation or attempt at 
explanation — such as the statement that life is 
the result of the molecular forces of the pro- 
toplasm, or that the whole existing organic 
universe from the amoeba up to man was latent 
in the fire-mist from which the solar system 
was developed, can afford any mental satisfac- 
tion, or help us in any way to a solution of the 
mystery. . . . The third stage is the exist- 
ence in man of a number of the most charac- 
teristic and noblest faculties, those which raise 
him furthest above the brutes and open up 
possibilities of almost indefinite advancement. 
These faculties could not possibly have been 
developed by means of the same laws which 
have determined the progressive development 
of the organic world in general, and also of 
man's physical organism." 

It is also interesting to note, in connection 
with these important concessions or affirma- 
tions, that this prominent evolutionist concludes 
that these " stages of progress from the inor- 



92 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

ganic world of matter and motion up to man, 
point clearly to an unseen universe — to a world 
of spirit to which the world of matter is alto- 
gether subordinate.' 5 

Surely, if it is necessary to assume from time 
to time the introduction of new forces to carry 
forward and upward the process of develop- 
ment, and if the whole tendency of the move- 
ment is in the direction of the spiritual and 
gives evidence of a higher and dominating 
world of spirit, it cannot be said to be in any 
sense in opposition to the teachings or methods 
of Evolution for us to postulate a new and 
spiritual element or force, introduced to carry 
forward the process of development to a still 
higher stage or plane in the direction of the 
moral and spiritual : indeed, from the consider- 
ations already adduced, it would seem that such 
a change or advance would be clearly in har- 
mony with the methods of development ex- 
pressed in the doctrine of Evolution. Evolution 
has ever a forward look. In its thought nothing 
is considered as stationary or complete. 

The development of the universe could not 
stop with any organization of matter, however 
complex or beautiful; under the constraining 



THE INCARNATION. 



93 



impulse of the will of Him who presides over 
and directs the whole process of Evolution it 
pressed on to the development of vegetable 
life, with all its many and varying forms of 
beauty. No more could it rest satisfied with 
this attainment : animal lif e, with enlarged 
powers and capabilities, must appear, and the 
earth was inhabited with a vast number of 
different forms of life. But the brute creation 
could not be accepted as the end of the crea- 
tion through Evolution : man, a being of in- 
telligence and will, steps upon the scene, 
possessing still greater capabilities and potenti- 
alities, even the glimmerings of a still higher, 
a moral and spiritual life. Shall the natural 
man occupy the place, as the end and consum- 
mation of all these creative and developing 
processes, which has been denied to all that 
preceded him ? Does he bear in his nature 
and organization the marks of completeness, 
which clearly indicate that he must be a final- 
ity in the evolutionary process ? Have we 
reached the end of the road, or the summit of 
the mountain-peak, where all further advance 
is impossible ? Are we not the rather bound 
by all the analogies of the process of Evolu- 



94 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOB. 

tion, and encouraged by the fact that we find 
in man the beginnings of a new, a moral and 
a spiritual life, just as we discovered in the 
animal the beginnings of an intelligent life, to 
confidently expect the full development of the 
spiritual man on the basis of the natural, the 
spiritual following the rational as the rational 
followed the organic and the organic followed 
and was developed out of the inorganic ? 

Such a step in advance in the process of 
Evolution can only be brought about by the 
introduction, as in the preceding transition 
periods, of a new cause or force. Now this is 
just what the Incarnation does, fully satisfying 
all the conditions and requirements of the 
case, and in full harmony with the preceding 
analogies of the process of development. We 
thus see in the Incarnation the beginning of 
the establishment and realization of a new and 
spiritual kingdom, with Christ as its 66 first 
fruits " and determining force, in which poten- 
tially all mankind has a place. 

The preceding stages of Revelation ; the 
predictions of the prophets; the manifestations 
of that light " which lighteth every man com- 
ing into the world/' to be seen in the universal 



THE INCARNATION. 



95 



moral consciousness of mankind, and discerned 
in many an ancient philosophy and ethnic re- 
ligion, these were all preparatory and prophetic ; 
even as were also all the preceding stages of 
that Evolution, which, working throughout 
countless ages and with infinite pains and con- 
tinuous adjustment and adaptation, has laid the 
foundation and prepared the way for the in- 
troduction and manifestation of the spiritual. 

In the Incarnation the Spiritual Kingdom 
is at last revealed and made actual. 

Long and thorough has been the prepara- 
tion ; many and varied the processes leading up 
to this event ; and most worthy and satisfactory 
is the consummation and end of all these pre- 
paratory steps in the evolutionary process : the 
corner-stone dignifies and solidifies the whole 
edifice of creation. 

The culmination of the processes of Evolution 
and the final and most complete manifestation 
of the Immanent God are both found in the 
Incarnation of Christ. The final and the per- 
manent, and that which can alone afford 
explanation of the preparatory and transient is 
the spiritual ; and the end of the ages is the 
new creation in Christ. 



96 



EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOB. 



CHAPTER VII. 

EVOLUTION AND THE SUPERNATURAL : MIR- 
ACLES, PROVIDENCE, PRAYER. 

Religion arises from and depends upon a 
belief in the Supernatural, which includes in 
its conception freedom, potentiality and per- 
sonality, and only personality can afford an 
appropriate basis for and stimulate the exer- 
cise of worship, love and prayer. 

Apart from such a belief, no religion has 
been established, and no system can be main- 
tained with doctrines, worship and fellowship, 
that can in any measure satisfy the longings 
and desires of man's spiritual and religious 
nature. 

1. Much of the conflict between Theology 
and Science has been carried on over the exist- 
ence of the Supernatural ; and in particular 
concerning the existence of the miraculous, as 
affording evidence of the Supernatural. 



M IRA CLES, PR VIDENCE, PR A TER. 97 



In this controversy Theology has been sub- 
ject to a -great disadvantage in that the mirac- 
ulous has to a considerable extent been in- 
volved in many and gross superstitions, and 
has also been made the occasion of exceed- 
ingly pernicious errors, and has thus fallen 
into disrepute. 

The chief arguments against miracles which 
have been brought forward by science are 
purely philosophical presumptions, dealing 
with the question of the possibility of the oc- 
currence of a miracle from the standpoint of 
a priori opinions, without deigning to adduce 
facts or weigh evidence, for or against them. 

Indeed, it has been commonly asserted that 
no amount of historical evidence would suffice 
to establish the occurrence of a miraculous 
event, even though the evidence adduced in 
its favor should be far greater than that con- 
sidered adequate for other occurrences, which 
are accepted as beyond question or doubt. 

Science has so developed and conceived of 
the idea of the universality and immutability 
of physical law, which its own investigations 
are continually establishing upon a firmer basis, 
and giving a wider scope and application, as 



98 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

to leave no room in the universe for the action 
of the supernatural ; it is ruled put by defini- 
tion. We are, however, far from being con- 
vinced that physical laws are supreme in the 
universe ; that mind is an empty term and has 
no existence in reality ; and that a spiritual 
kingdom and spiritual laws are myths. 

Nor can we bring ourselves to conceive of 
God as subject to laws of His own creation, 
and especially to the laws of matter. We are 
not willing to call that science which is not 
ready to accept all the facts of the universe, 
and which, because of philosophical presup- 
positions, refuses to consider the evidence for 
a certain class of facts, or to give any adequate 
weight to the testimony of the facts of con- 
sciousness, which we believe are even more 
important than those of matter and force, and 
give evidence of the reality and existence of a 
world of mind and of spirit. 

Evolution, as we understand its necessary 
implications, does not deny the spiritual and 
the supernatural. Indeed, as we have already 
seen, the supernatural is implied in or must be 
invoked to explain the process itself and to 
account for the basal principles and elements 



MIRACLES, PROVIDENCE, PRAYER. 99 



with which Evolution has to do, and to explain 
the introduction of new forces or causes at 
different stages in the process of development, 
and that the doctrine of Evolution, by the 
analogy of its own processes, points to the 
spiritual as the culmination and end of the 
natural. It would, therefore, seem almost 
superfluous to question further the attitude of 
Evolution toward the Supernatural; but, on 
the other hand, in view of the prominence of 
this topic in the controversy between science 
and theology, a few additional considerations 
may not be out of place. I presume that 
many of those who appreciate the significance 
of the Christian doctrine of the Immanent God, 
and admire the magnitude of the plan and 
minuteness of the various processes displayed 
in the universe, have long before this become 
weary of a discussion which deals so largely in 
presuppositions, and the exaggerated promi- 
nence given to the exceptional, and are ready 
to say with Philo, — " But the truly miraculous 
has become despised through familiarity, the 
unusual, on the contrary, although in itself in- 
significant, yet through our love of novelty, 
transports us with amazement." 



100 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

It might suffice to quiet the apprehensions 
of those who fear that the doctrine of Evolu- 
tion may destroy all basis for belief in the 
Supernatural, to say that true science cannot 
afford to reject veritable facts, and must the 
rather find a place for them in its system, 
otherwise it cannot expect for its theories any 
permanent interest or general acceptance. 

But, further, taking as our definition of a 
miracle, — " A deviation from the known laws 
of nature," it is hard to see how the doctrine 
of Evolution is necessarily opposed to their 
acceptance. 

Have we not on every side intimations and 
evidences of higher and spiritual laws ? Are 
new combinations of known laws unthinkable ? 
The law regulating the movements of two 
bodies mutually attracting each other cannot 
be depended upon to furnish the explanation 
of the variations produced when these bodies, 
or even one of them, are also subject to the 
attraction of a third body. Nevertheless, how- 
ever complicated and eccentric the resultant 
movements may be, in the case mentioned, we 
do not refuse to accept the facts, and we believe 
that there is a higher law capable of affording 



MIR A CLES, PR O VIDENCE, PR A YER. 101 



a satisfactory explanation of them, though we 
may not as yet have discovered it, and are, 
therefore, not able to state it. The doctrine 
of Evolution teaches the universality of law, 
the very principle which science has long urged 
as necessarily fatal to any belief in miracles, 
and which many, for this reason, feared and 
hesitated in accepting. Such fear, however, is 
due to a misconception of the necessary im- 
plications of the principle, or comes from a 
deistic conception of nature and its laws. 

What are these laws which control nature, 
life, mind, society and all human activity and 
progress, enabling man to develop and realize 
his freedom and personality through and on 
the basis of their unchanging requirements and 
regulations : how are they ordained : and who 
gives them their authority and validity ? 

Do they not require for their explanation 
nothing less than the presence and potency * 
of the Immanent God, and must we not consider 
them as the expressions of His will? Prof. 
Bowne has well said, 1 — " So far as the facts go, 
we may view Nature as only the orderly form 
under which a divine purpose is being contin- 

1 Independent, July 31st, 1890. 



102 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

uously realized by a continuous divine activity. 
The unity of Nature is the unity of the divine 
plan. The progress in Nature is but the suc- 
cessive unfolding and realization of divine pur- 
pose. The bond of union, the ground of prog- 
ress, the living force of the whole, are to be 
found in a Supreme Intellect and Will in 
which Nature has its source and being." 

Indeed one might maintain that God does 
not work otherwise than through law, and 
even claim that His direct influence or action 
upon the human mind which gives it its power 
and sensibility is also an act under law, and 
there is little evidence or force of analogy from 
known facts that would not be found to favor, 
or be in perfect harmony with such views. 
We can accept with Evolution the doctrine of 
the universality of law, and at the same time 
believe in an all-embracing; and all-determining 
supernatural. Indeed, this doctrine of the 
universality of law affirms only that the Imma- 
nent God, " with whom can be no variation, 
neither shadow that is cast by turning," mani- 
fests His will in an orderly and consistent 
manner, and discredits only by arbitrary and 
capricious supernatural. 



MIRACLES, PROVIDENCE, PRAYER. 103 

The suspension or violation of the laws of 
nature, real or apparent , involved in a miracle, 
is nothing more than is seen constantly taking 
place about us. 

We find that one law frequently counteracts 
another : the resultant of two forces follows 
a path not marked out by either of them, but 
due to the influence of both : the chemical 
laws of matter are held in abeyance by the 
vital force of a living organism : there is hardly 
a law of nature that man cannot in a measure 
counteract or direct and modify in its action 
according to his desires and purposes. If the 
finite man can, to an ever-increasing extent, as 
he comes to understand the meaning and scope 
of the application of the laws of nature, control 
them and realize his purposes through them, 
by how much more will the infinite God be 
able to employ these laws of His own creation 
in the accomplishment of His plans of love. 
It is not conceivable that the Immanent God 
can, in any way, be hindered, conditioned or 
constrained by these laws of his own establish- 
ment, and which are but the methods of his 
activity. 

2. It will readily appear from the con- 



104 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

siderations already adduced that the doc- 
trine of Evolution cannot be quoted as opposed 
to that of Providence. Indeed, Evolution 
furnishes us with a substantial and rational 
basis for the development of this doctrine, as 
broad as the facts of the universe and minute 
enough to include in the sphere of its direc- 
tion the most insignificant forces and elements. 
This doctrine of Providence manifested and 
realized through universal and far-reaching 
laws will come as a wdiolesome corrective for 
many of the loose theories and conceptions of 
Providence, wdiich have done so much to bring 
the doctrine into disrepute and contempt among 
thinking men. Evolution cannot be depended 
upon to bolster up that trust in Providence, 
born of presumptuous ignorance, which neglects 
or refuses to use w r ell-accredited means to 
w r ard off disaster or obtain relief from sickness 
and disease, preferring, wdth a faith more 
simple than even childlike, to commit to God 
that which science and human experience have 
shown to be dependent upon human agency 
and the use of appropriate means. Nor will 
it afford any comfort or support for the 
hypocrisy and self-conceit of those who ascribe 



MIRACLES, PROVIDENCE, PRAYER. 105 

all the evils experienced by those they do not 
like, and all occurrences that contribute to 
their own comfort, convenience and advantage 
to the direct and special action and interven- 
tion of the Divine Will. 

The doctrine of Evolution does not establish 
Fatalism, but it indicates the universality of a 
law working for the realization and the estab- 
lishment of the moral and spiritual ; it maintains 
an orderly arid consistent Providence in har- 
mony with the dignity and all the high and 
holy attributes of our God ; and it teaches us, 
if we would take advantage of the Divine Prov- 
idence, we must put ourselves in harmony with 
the Divine Will. 

In the direction of moral and spiritual attain- 
ment, the grand and all-important truth is well 
expressed by the Apostle Paul :— " And we 
know that to them that love God all things 
work together for good." 

We believe that all the forces of the universe, 
whether natural or spiritual, are arranged and 
calculated so as to co-operate with all the en- 
deavors of those who love God" and strive 
to know and obey His will in the realization and 
attainment of all that is worthy and permanent. 



106 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOB. 

Man, by his study of Nature and Revelation and 
by the constant experience of every-day life as 
well, is ever learning more and more of the 
will of God, as he comes to understand more 
thoroughly the laws of the universe and their 
many possible combinations and applications. 
Providence is waiting to co-operate with him 
ever increasingly as he attains to a more com- 
plete and exact knowledge of these laws of the 
universe and renders to them a more intelli- 
gent obedience. 

What a grand future of attainment lies 
before the race as man learns more and more 
how to co-operate with God in the Divine 
processes and in harmony with the Divine 
purposes, and so comes to command more 
and more the potency of the Omnipotent in 
the development of a higher civilization and 
the realization of high moral and spiritual 
ideals. 

3. Evolution has also been thought to 
destroy the basis of prayer with its doctrine 
of the universality of law, or to render its use 
irrational and meaningless. 

It is true there are certain kinds of Prayer 
that this doctrine makes to appear irrational, 



MIR A CLES, PR O VIDENCE, PR A YER. 107 

not that it changes the facts at all, only that 
it makes their true character manifest that all 
may appreciate their absurdity. 

To this class belong those prayers that are 
content to rest satisfied with empty words in 
the form of petition, when the means which 
must be employed to bring about the desired 
ends are within reach, and only half-hearted- 
ness, laziness or ignorance on the part of the 
petitioner keeps him from striving himself for 
the attainment of the desired object. No 
amount of prayer for bountiful harvests by the 
farmer can take the place of the necessary 
labor of preparing the soil, sowing the seed, 
and attending to the proper nurture of the 
growing plants. 

If man does his part, God, working through 
and by means of natural law, will crown his 
efforts with success, in proportion to the care 
and labor that he has expended, but He puts 
no premium on laziness or ignorance. 

Man must pray, if he would pray acceptably, 
according to the will of God, and that will is 
clearly manifested in the terms of law and has 
its unmistakable and unchangeable require- 
ments. The " Faith Cure," so called, is a fail- 



108 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

ure, not so much because of the lack of faith, 
as the absence of that intelligent faith which 
leads its possessor to strive to understand the 
will of God as manifested in the known laws 
of hygiene, and then to put himself in harmony 
with that will by using the best and most 
approved means at hand. 

Even in matters relating distinctively to 
religion, we have learned to value only those 
prayers that pledge the petitioner to use, him- 
self, all the means at his command for the 
attainment of the desired end : and here, also, 
we are beginning; to discern the fact that God 
works by and through laws, which we may 
hope to understand and use with increasing 
efficiency. 

The influence of Evolution upon Prayer will 
be to make the petitioner more humble and 
earnest, and the petitions more rational and 
more nearly in harmony with God's manifested 
will : 1 — " As the Supernatural discloses itself 
more perfectly in and by and through the natural, 
prayer will pass more and more into silent trust 
and wise diligence : not because intervention 
is felt to be unfitting, but because the wisdom 
1 Prof. Bascom : Natural Theology. 



MIRACLES, PROVIDENCE, PRAYER. 109 

and grace of God are felt to be present un- 
solicited, and to be sufficient of themselves 
without importunity." 

Moreover, we may expect, with clearer and 
more rational conceptions of the nature and 
office of prayer, a deeper appreciation of its 
meaning and value, both as a means of com- 
munication and communion with the Immanent 
God, and also as a force of supreme importance 
in the world of spiritual life and endeavor. 
Science, because of the many irrational uses of 
prayer, has never accorded to it its true place in 
the universe as a force : indeed, science has 
rarely taken much notice of the spiritual side 
of the universe, and has never been willing to 
give as ready hearing or credence to the facts 
furnished by consciousness, as to those obtained 
by observation and experiment. The true 
science of the future cannot fail of taking into 
account this important class of facts so long 
disregarded by the advocates of the empirical 
philosophy. There is no lack of testimony as 
to the value, power and efficacy of prayer ; and 
it cannot fail of obtaining recognition sooner 
or later as a primal power or force in the spir- 
itual world, as gravitation is in the world of 



110 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

nature : and the very doctrine of Evolution 
may require such recognition in order to explain 
the many facts of consciousness and experience : 
certainly it is no foe to the prayer of the 
righteous man, which "availeth much in its 
working." 



EVOLUTION AND IMMORTALITY. Ill 



CHAPTER VIII. 

EVOLUTION AND IMMORTALITY. 

The Immortality of the soul is one of the 
oldest and most important problems of philos- 
ophy and beliefs of religion : a conception or 
idea fundamental to human thought and belief, 
which philosophy has ever tried to establish 
upon a rational foundation, but with varying 
degrees of success, even in its own estimation. 

It is a subject of such evident and tran- 
scendent importance that it is not strange that 
it has ever been uppermost in human thought : 
indeed, as the question of the life or death of 
each individual is involved in it, we should ex- 
pect that it would engross the thought of man- 
kind to a greater extent than any other question 
could. We may say that this belief is philo- 
sophically or logically dependent upon our 
conception of God and His attributes and the 



112 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

requirements of our own spiritual natures. It 
is also true, on the other hand, that a belief in 
the immortality of the soul makes a vast differ- 
ence in our conception of the attributes of God 
and appreciation of the meaning of the facts of 
our own nature and life. 

It is evident that physical science can have 
nothing to say directly with regard to the 
solution of this great problem, either for or 
against a belief in immortality. 

From our own physical constitution we are 
not able to obtain any rational expectation of 
a future life. 

We are only able to draw our presumptions in 
favor of a belief in immortality from our rational 
or spiritual nature and its demands, and the 
character and government of God. The value 
or validity of these considerations or arguments 
varies with different individuals? according to 
each person's individual bias or the standpoint 
from which he views and explains the facts 
from which they are drawn. The materialist 
is logically shut out from any belief in a per- 
sonal immortality, and can only look forward 
to an immortality of influence, a continuity of 
existence in the lives and characters of others. 



EVOLUTION AND IMMORTALITY. 113 

To the one who accepts the Christian Reve- 
lation these considerations bring additional and 
corroborative proof of that which he already 
believes to be true on the basis of other evi- 
dence. It may well be doubted whether it is 
possible to demonstrate the personal immortal- 
ity of the human soul apart from the light and 
aid furnished us by Revelation. And yet the 
considerations brought forward by Natural 
Theology in support of such a belief are most 
important as affording at least a presumption 
in its favor, and a philosophical basis for its 
acceptance. In other words, it adds much to 
the harmony and consistency of our thought if 
we can with the light of Nature discover traces, 
however dim, of that truth which the clearer 
light of Revelation makes manifest and es- 
tablishes. 

In this endeavor the requirements of the 
doctrine of Evolution and its philosophy will, I 
believe, be found to furnish most important 
and substantial aid. 

Man possesses in his spiritual nature powers 
which are of a peculiar order. They cannot 
be explained as the product of matter in any 
of its manifestations or as the result of the 



114 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

action of its forces. Human life is character- 
ized by intelligence, freedom, and morality — 
qualities not inhering in matter, nor possessed 
by the brute creation. To predicate extinction 
of this life on the death of the body on the 
basis of analogies drawn from the organic 
world is not logical, nor can the chemical forces 
all-powerful in the process of bodily dissolution 
be conceived of as having any effect upon those 
elements which go to make up the personality, 
the true spiritual nature and the life known to 
consciousness. Although the life of man is 
manifested through the bodily organism, and 
developed in connection with it, on the decay 
of the body as it approaches the termination of 
the allotted period of its existence, there is no 
corresponding decay or enfeeblement of the 
intellectual and spiritual powers. On the 
contrary, man's higher powers seem to be 
capable of an indefinite development and 
growth : and the experience and wisdom of 
age surely prepare their possessor for life rather 
than death, and make possible a larger exist- 
ence and a higher development, and are clearly 
prophetic of it. 

Evolution, with its doctrine of the persist- 



EVOLUTION AND IMMORTALITY. 115 

ence of force, so fundamental to all its con- 
ceptions and processes, would seem to require 
a belief in at least some form of existence after 
the death of the body. 

When the bodily organism perishes, the forces 
which have been manifested in and through it 
cannot be destroyed : they must be conceived 
of as passing to some other form of manifest- 
ation, and as existing as really when using 
some other instrument as when they inhabited 
the body. Evolution teaches us that no force 
can be destroyed : it can only be transmitted. 
No more can that higher spiritual life, which 
manifests itself as reason, will, and conscience 
in personality, perish out of the universe. 
This doctrine of the general indestructibility of 
the soul may not be by any means perfectly 
synonymous with the doctrine of personal im- 
mortality ; and yet it is hard to see how or 
where the distinctive element of personality 
can be lost. It is claimed by some that with 
the decay of the brain tissues and the nerves 
all conscious existence must come to an end ; 
but this is pure supposition and is not required 
by any considerations necessarily following 
from the doctrine of Evolution. 



116 EVOLUTION AXD THE IMMANENT GOD. 



Prof. Piske has declared 1 that he does not 
at all agree with the conclusion " that the com- 
plex web of human consciousness cannot sur- 
vive the disintegration of the organic structure 
with which we invariably find it associated/' 
and that he considers it as " a conclusion not 
involved in the premises, and one which no 
scientific philosopher, as such, has a right to 
draw." 

Without immortality the whole object of the 
development of man would be lost. If death 
ends all, what a weariness of fruitless labors, 
what a protracted series of purposeless move- 
ments, what a succession of insufficient issues, 
what a waste of material and of force, what a 
prodigality of energy, of endeavor, and of suffer- 
ing the history of the development of humanity 
discloses ; and the process is still going on 
without any prospect of reaching a satisfactory 
termination. 

How can we afford any explanation of the 
moral faculty, or find any justification for the 
promulgation of moral law to guide a simply 
moral life ? 

Self-sacrifice, duty, and high ideals — what 

1 Excursions of an Evolutionist. 



EVOLUTION AND IMMORTALITY. 117 



opportunity have they to bring forth their 
appropriate fruit or manifest their logical and 
inherent tendencies ? 

If immortality be not a fact, morality is use- 
less, if not immoral, and the only natural and 
rational rule of life must be, as the Apostle 
Paul perceived, — " Let us eat and drink, for 
to-morrow we die." 

Moreover, if immortality is not a fact, we 
have to explain how a belief in it could arise 
and maintain itself so stubbornly, notwithstand- 
ing the fact of the death of the body which 
seems at first sight to destroy all such hope. 
The belief in the immortality of the soul is 
a widespread one, common to all the great 
religions, and it seems to belong to the same 
class of primal, if not intuitive beliefs, as that 
of the existence of the spirit and of a God. 
How and upon what basis could such a belief, 
transcending all experience, have been devel- 
oped in the childhood of the race : and how 
could it maintain itself when the growing ex- 
perience of mankind saw only universal mor- 
tality of the apparent life of the race ? And 
yet we find in man something more wonder- 
ful and even harder to explain on any other 



118 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

supposition than that of the immortality of 
the soul : — a craving, a longing, deeper and 
stronger than any appetite or passion, for con- 
tinuity of existence. Man cannot endure the 
thought of annihilation. He cannot even 
imagine the going-out of his conscious, per- 
sonal existence. We have no reason for sup- 
posing that the brute experiences anything 
analogous to this. It seems to be a soul-in- 
stinct, implanted within the soul of man too 
deeply to be completely eradicated, even at the 
behests of a materialistic philosophy, which the 
individual may bring himself to accept. There 
is not a bodily passion or appetite but that can 
find its appropriate satisfaction provided for it 
by nature and within the reach of its attain- 
ment. 

Mental and aesthetic tastes exist also and 
only to the extent that there is material ready 
at hand, or to be obtained in the universe, for 
their satisfaction, and, as they are developed 
and become more critical in their demands, the 
store-house of nature is still able to furnish 
all that is needful. Can we now suppose for a 
moment that this longing of the soul, the 
deepest and most persistent of all, is alone to 



EVOLUTION AND IMMORTALITY. 



119 



go without any appropriate satisfaction? Can 
we bring ourselves to believe that it was planted 
and developed within us only to mock us, and 
without any reality to correspond with its de- 
mands? Indeed, w r e cannot, and there is no 
theory of Evolution that can afford us any aid in 
accounting for the belief in and the all-master- 
ing desire for immortality, without postulating 
immortality itself as its cause and explanation. 

The truthfulness of God demands the im- 
mortality of the soul, for He has permitted, at 
least, the development of this belief and the 
awakening of this wide-spread hope. The 
benevolence of God and the manifestation of 
the ends of creation and the justification of 
the methods of the government of the universe 
also require it. Without the immortality of 
the soul and the awards of the future life, the 
beneficence of God would remain an unproven 
supposition, truth and righteousness would be 
unvindicated, w r hile death, sin and suffering 
would be proclaimed as victors in life's pur- 
poseless struggle. Indeed, apart from a belief 
in immortality, it is doubtful whether any evi- 
dence could suffice to demonstrate to us the 
existence of a God at all. 







120 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

We might also say that the doctrine of 
Evolution is equally imperative in its demands 
for some belief in immortality in order to afford 
a satisfactory and worthy end for its processes, 
looked upon as a whole. Evolution tells us of 
elemental forces working throughout long ages, 
of chemical forces following in the line of suc- 
cession, and of vital forces making possible the 
development of plant and animal life, and of 
the constant working of all these forces and of 
resultant progress ever onward and upward 
throughout long periods preparing the way for 
a higher development and manifestation of life. 
The fruit of all this waiting, the result of all 
these manifold processes is man, who adds to 
all that the preceding development could 
furnish, reason, conscience, freedom and per- 
sonality. 

So far the process of development has been 
steadily onward and upward, taking, as it were, 
longer strides in advance at each stage. Have 
we any reason for supposing that this process 
is now to be reversed, and that when it comes 
to pass to the next stage, man w r ill lose all, or 
indeed any portion, of his present endowment ? 

Not at all. The whole analogy of the past 



EVOLUTION AND IMMORTALITY. 121 



is against any such supposition, and the whole 
law of continuity and development points the 
rather to a higher manifestation of the spiritual, 
the moral and the personal. There are some 1 
who would apply the law of the " Survival of 
the Fittest " here, and consider immortality as 
mainly qualitative, believing that those souls 
which do not choose those qualities of truth 
and righteousness, " which are essential to a 
divine, and, therefore, an immortal life," are 
not likely to survive the transition from this 
earthly existence to the spiritual : an opinion 
in harmony with a well-known theological 
theory, which seems to be gaining currency in 
certain quarters. Without entering upon the 
consideration of the influence of Evolution upon 
the development of the doctrine of immortality 
— a task which properly belongs to Systematic 
Theology — it is enough for us to maintain that 
Evolution is clearly in harmony with its gen- 
eral conception, or belief, that it would seem to 
prophesy a larger career for the soul of man in 
an enlarged sphere of development, and that 
all the analogies of its processes in the develop- 
ment of that which has preceded man, and in 
1 Myron Adams : The Continuous Creation. 



122 EVOLUTION AND THE IMMANENT GOD. 

the evolution of man himself, are clearly and 
unequivocally opposed to any conception of 
immortality which involves any loss of the 
higher and more distinctive qualities or powers 
of the soul. 

According to Evolution and Revelation alike, 
" it is not yet made manifest what we shall be." 

We await the realization of the Divine plan : 
the consummation of the processes of Evolu- 
tion : the manifestation of the new creation in 
Christ — the " revealing of the sons of God." 

We wait with earnest expectation and with 
steadfast confidence, based upon the unchang- 
ing character and purpose of love of the Im- 
manent God — the Word made flesh. Ours is 
the faith of the beloved disciple, who said : — - 
" We know that, if he shall be manifested, 
we shall be like him ; for we shall see him even 
as he is." 

THE END. 



From the press of the Arena Publishing Company. 



A Sequel to " Looking Backward.' 



Rabbi 
Solomon 
Schindler 



Civilization 
under National- 
ism in the 
Twenty-Second 
Century 



YOUNG WEST. 



Price, cloth, $1.25 ; paper, 50 cents. 



The author of " Looking Backward" and others did a 
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which had been discussed for a long time by the best 
scientific writers of our day, but which were and are un- 
fortunately removed from popular sympathy through the 
strictly scientific character of the literary vehicles in which 
they appeared. But the author of " Looking Backward," 
probably on account of the limited compass of his book, 
has not given in detail a description of all the social con- 
ditions of the brighter future which is to witness the tri- 
umph of altruism. He has merely whetted the appetite of 
the reader, but he has not satified his hunger. 44 Young 
West " (the son of Julian West) will indirectly answer all 
these questions. Describing his own eventful career from 
his first awakening to consciousness to his age of three- 
score and ten, the hero of the book will picture life in its 
various phases, as it will be acted out by a citizen of the 
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The book is intended primarily to answer the many 
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A Stirring Story of the TWar. 



Helen H. 
Gardener 



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AN UNOFFICIAL PATRIOT. 

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From the press of the Arena Publishing Company. 



George C. 
Ward 



Aims to Abolish 
Legalized Usury 



Every Man with 
a Vote is under 
an Obligation 
to Society to 
Think. He also 
owes it to him- 
self to be more 
than a Vote — 
a Voter 



Frank 
Parsons 



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A BETTER FINANCIAL SYSTEil : or, Gov- 
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An important work just issued in the famous Copley 
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George C. Ward in his timely and valuable work, " A 
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OUR COUNTRY'S NEED : or, The Develop- 
ment of a Scientific Industrialism. 

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It builds political economy on true foundations. I am in 
heartiest sympathy with your philosophy of * Mutualism.' 
Our conversations about it have been a delight to me. 
The * Law of Development ' and the * Historic Parallel 1 
are worthy, I think, of the emphasis you give them. All 
your underlying principles I fully accept. They are 
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Serious Iftorhs for Students of Social, Economic an6 
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Samuel 
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A handbook for 
Money- 
Reformers 



Ilarion 
Todd 



A strong work 
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Governmental 
Ownership of 
Railroads 



OUR MONEY WARS. 

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World and Graphic. In 1878 he was managing editor of 
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sixty speeches for Henry George in the memorable cam- 
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1786. 1786 to 1796. 1796 to 1806. 1806 to 1816. 1816 
to 1826. 1826 to 1836. 1836 to 1846. 1846 to 1856. 
1856 to 1861. 1861 to 1866 (the war period). 1866 to 
1873. 1873 to 1880 (seven years of famine in a land of 
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RAILROADS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. 

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A Bibelot for Booh-Louers, 



Walter 
Blackburn 
Harte 



" Motley's the 
only wear." 



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MEDITATIONS IN MOTLEY: A Bundle of 
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44 Meditations in Motley " is a book for the fireside or 
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there is added a suggestion of French sparkle and wit and 
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Che History of a iSreat Social Experiment, 



Dr. John T. 
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The History of a 
Great Social and 
Intellectual 
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BROOK FARM. Memoirs, Historic and Per- 
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A Bundle of New Books. 



Jlarion D. 
Shutter, 
D. D. 



Wit and Humor 
are sometimes 
confused with 
Buffoonery. 
They, however, 
are to be found in 
the highest works 
only, and they 
are subtly 
present in the 
highest 



Thomas 
Alexander 
Hyde 



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Wit and Humor of the Bible. 

A literary study. Many writers have written instructive 
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Christ the Orator : or, Never flan Spake 

Like This Man. 

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Fiction : Social, Economic anb Reformatiue, 



E. 5tillman 
Doubleday 



A story of the 
Struggles of 
Honest Industry 
under Present 
Day Conditions. 



Charles S. 
Daniel 



A- Story of the 
Transformation 
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JUST PLAIN FOLKS. 

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AI : A Social Vision. 

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A Keui Booh of Social thought Just Published. 



B.O. Flower 



The Social 
Factors at Work 
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Rev. 
Minot J. 
Savage 



A New World, a 
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The New Relig- 
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Verities 



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The New Time : A Plea for the Union of 
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The Irrepressible Conflict between 
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Five lectures dealing with Christianity and evolutionary 
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A Butidle of New Books. 



A Remarkable 
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the Identity of 
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the Creeds 



Rev. 
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A Book for 
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The Higher Life 
Here and Now 



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The World's Congress of Religions. 

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For sale by all newsdealers or sent postpaid by 

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